The Evil Dead: A Complete Novelization
by Apollomasque
Summary: A complete novelization of my favorite film series. Part 2:Dead by Dawn. Chapter 24. Finally updated! Annie has a reunion with her father.
1. Chapter 1: Cabin in the Woods

Cancer Care December 15th

**The Evil Dead:**

**A Novelization**

Prologue

Legend has it, it was written by the dark ones. Necrinomicon Ex Mortis, roughly translated: Book of the Dead. It was written long ago, when the seas ran red with blood. It was this blood that was used to ink the book. The Necrinomicom served as a passageway of sorts, to the hideous worlds beyond. The book contained summoning spells, demonic passages and bizarre funeral rites, recitation of such could bring about unspeakable evil. In the year 1400 A.D., the book disappeared…

**Chapter 1**

**Cabin in the Woods**

An aging Chevy Oldsmobile, a bright yellow in colour, sped down a quiet mountain road. The car contained five occupants, one was driving, one was reading, one was singing and two were staring out the window. The only male passenger in the back, a young man with black hair, thick eyebrows and a pronounced chin glanced foreword as the driver joined in with the song. They made a cute couple he thought, maybe not as cute as him and Linda, but still, he could see them living together happily. Suddenly the driver, Scotty, a man with long blonde hair and a shaggy look about him, cut off and glanced back at him. "Hey Ash, where are we?"

Ash glanced down at the map in his hands, tracing the road they were following with his finger. "Well, we just crossed the Tennessee border so…"

Unbeknownst to the occupants of the car, something within the woods was watching them, something formless, a consciousness that seemed to drip with malevolence. It watched as the car drove along the road, another part of it sensed a large truck driving in the opposite direction. Although this inhuman thing's power was greatly reduced in the light of day, maybe it could still have a little fun.

"That would put usss…" Ash continued. Scotty leaned back "yeah?"

The thing saw it's chance and sped forward, towards the car and the hapless passengers within. "Which would put us…" The presence sped past trees and shrubs, it was almost there. "Riiighht". The force could see the car; it skimmed low, propelling itself towards it.

"Here!" Ash proclaimed, pointing to a spot on the map. Suddenly the steering wheel spun out of Scotty's hands, dragging the rest of the car across the road at a very dangerous angle. The car righted itself, albeit right in front of a large truck that was headed straight for them, honking its horn loudly.

"Turn!" shrieked Shelly, the redheaded girl sitting in the front passenger seat.

Scotty tried but the wheel wouldn't respond, the trunk was much closer now and four feet was a very unhealthy distance to be away from a truck that was headed straight at you. Scotty finally was able to wrestle the steering wheel free of whatever force was gripping it and veered to the right as the truck barreled past. Linda screamed, but other than that, they were safe.

Ash thumped the headrest of Scotty's seat. "What the hell was that?!"

"Hey don't blame me" Scotty replied, rapidly regaining his cool, "It's the damn steering wheel, jerked right out of my hands!"

"I don't understand, I had this thing in for a tune-up yesterday! They said they'd gone over everything!"

"Yeah, well you better take it back 'cause the damn thing don't work, all that does work is this lousy horn" To punctuate his statement, Scotty honked said horn twice. This caused two yokels at the side of the road to wave at him.

"Aw go to hell!" Scotty yelled as he leaned out the window "I'm not honkin' at you!" It was times like this Ash wondered what Shelly saw in him.

Shelly chimed in asking, "Hey Scotty, what's this place like anyhow?" Scotty answered her. "Well, it's a little run down, but it's right up in the mountains, and the best part is, we're getting it so cheap"

"Yeah" asked Cheryl, Ash's younger sister. Cheryl shared Ash's dark hair and stunning blue eyes. She had insisted on coming with them and eventually Ash agreed. Partly because he thought that it would be nice for his sister to tag along, and partly because she was one of the few people who knew his real name was _Ashley _and threatened to tell Scotty. "Why _are _we getting it so cheap?"

"I dunno" Scotty replied "maybe 'cause it's in bad shape"

Linda, Ashley's girlfriend and a brunette with stunning features, leaned foreword. "You mean, no ones _seen_ this place yet?"

"Well no, not yet" Scotty confirmed.

Ash tried to reassure her "It might not be that bad"

"Yeah" Cheryl continued, "Actually might be kind of nice"

" It's probably a real pit" Shelly interjected sullenly.

Ash consulted the map and pointed to a side path leading off the main road

" I think this is where we get off" Scotty complied and turned on to the path and onto a very flimsy looking bridge.

"This is the bridge we're gonna cross?" said Shelly apprehensively, peering out over the side.

A tremor signaled several planks dropping away into the gorge below.

"Jesus Christ" Scotty yelped, "the whole thing's coming apart on us!"

Ash once again tried to reassure them. "Relax girls, I'm sure this thing is as solid as a rock". The bridge thought other wise and gave way underneath one of the wheels. The tire squealed and eventually pulled free, carrying the rest of the car off of the bridge. Ash chuckled slightly at Cheryl's nervousness.

The Chevy wound down a heavily wooded path, right into the heart of the forest. It was eerily quiet. One would expect the sounds of wildlife or even just the wind, but nothing, utter silence. This fact was lost on the group as they climbed out of the car and gazed at the cabin they would be spending Spring Break in. Scotty trudged forwards, stepping onto the porch and noticed the swinging bench. By the time he realized that it would be odd for a bench to be swinging with no wind, it had stopped. He glanced over his shoulder and saw his four friends rooted to the spot, staring at him as he advanced to the front door. What's got into them?

He reached the door and extended his hand to the shelf made by the threshold and felt around until his fingers closed around a ring of keys. He brought it down and turned back to the group. They slowly started to walk towards him. "It's supposed to be one of these on here" Scotty glanced at the inert bench again and inserted the first key into the door. Why was the hair on the back of his neck standing? He felt like he was being watched. He tried the second key and the door clicked open. The others huddled behind him as the door swing open, illuminating the dusty interior. Scotty finally willed himself to relax. Four college graduates and one student in an old abandoned cabin in the woods. What could possibly happen?


	2. Chapter 2: Getting Settled

Cancer Care December 15th

**Chapter 2**

**Getting Settled**

Scotty looked over the cabin. It really wasn't that bad. The living room seemed in order, the kitchen, which could be seen through a bar area, looked pleasant and he saw a corridor leading off to the bed and bathrooms. All in all, it looked inviting and homey. Scotty turned and walked out, passing his friends as they playfully unloaded the car. Everything they would need for a week up in the mountains. Board games, hiking supplies, condoms, hot dogs, chips, plenty of cheese and of course, enough alcohol to fuel a fighter jet. Everything seemed perfect.

Scotty passed them and headed to the work shed. He unwound the chain on the door and stepped inside. The place looked considerably more sinister, from the buffalo skull on the wall to the chains and, animal bones hanging from the rafters. He glanced at the various tools hanging on the walls, hammers, wrenches, an ax, presumably to gather firewood, some screwdrivers, a box of electrical supplies, spare parts and odds and ends and a chainsaw resting on a hook. Scotty turned off the light and closed the door behind him.

By the time everything had been brought in and put away, the sun had already sunk low in the sky, it would be dark soon. The clock in the living room ticked away as Shelly sat below it, lightly sketching its outline and features. As she did this, she wondered why she had come. Shelly didn't know anyone else here, besides Scotty. She wasn't even that fond of the outdoors, but still she had come and she supposed it would turn out for the best with her and Scotty. She looked up at the clock again, and was surprised to see that it had stopped. The pendulum wasn't even resting at the bottom. It just hung there at the apex of its movement, as if it had just been halted in mid swing. Shelly stared at it confusingly until a breeze ruffled past her. She stared out the window as the wind played with the curtains. "Odd" she thought, "I don't remember opening the window".

Suddenly a gust of wind blew across her notepad, turning it to a blank page. Shelly gasped as her hand seized up, gripping her pencil like a dagger. Some unseen force dragged her hand across the paper. It slowly started drawing something. So deeply it tore the paper, the pencil traced out a rectangle, then another one right below it, forming a prism. Her had lifted off the paper and stabbed it again, drawing two misshapen circles, an angle and a large oval underneath, resembling a decayed face. Shelly finally managed to drop the pencil, staring down at the paper in front of her with a mixture of confusion and fear. It almost resembled, a book. A book with a face.

Her train of thought was cut off as suddenly a part of the floor started to shake. In a second Shelly realized it was a trapdoor. It shook as though there was something below it. Something below that wanted to get out.


	3. Chapter 3: The Cellar

Cancer Care December 15th

**Chapter 3**

**The Cellar**

By dinnertime, Shelly had forced the incident out of her mind and sat at the table. In the kitchen, Cheryl prepared a reddish-looking smoothie for herself and things were underway. Sherry turned to Scotty as he sat down next to her. He pretended to pant and salivate at thought of the food at the table. Shelly scowled "Would you stop it?" she scolded as she poured herself a glass of something volatile.

Ash stood up at the head of the table and smiled

"I would like very much to make a toast, uh, for all of us this evening"

The others murmured their agreements through bites of food. "Um" Ash shuffled nervously "As a great friend of mine once said, uh… he said, I ah"

Cheryl snickered slightly as Scotty glanced at her with a "this guy's who you look up to?" look.

"Um, ok…ah" Ash was really stumbling now; having had a beer a few minutes earlier wasn't helping. "This, um"

Everyone was giggling now, even Linda had trouble keeping a straight face.

"Misz Tutarim" Ash blurted out, maybe saying something Latin would help.

Cheryl looked up at him with utter bemusement "And that means?"

"You're on the home stretch" Ash thought "don't choke".

"It means party down!" Scotty interrupted, saving Ashley at the last second. Ash sighed; this was why he had friends like Scotty. The group finally settled in for a meal, but the trapdoor, obviously hoping to ruin the good time, rattled up and down. The banging could be heard from the kitchen and the group turned in shock and curiosity. They ran into the living room, to find that the trap door was wide open, somehow left ajar by an unknown force.

The Five stood around the open door that apparently, led down into the cellar. They circled around it, staring into the inky, shadowy blackness.

Ash was the first to speak. "What is this?" he inquired, unable to shake an odd feeling of dread that had gotten hold of him. Linda clung to his arm, taking comfort in his polyester clad limb. "Whatever it is, it's still down there."

Cheryl fidgeted uncomfortably. "I don't like cellars, let's close it. It was probably just an animal."

"An animal?" Scotty chuckled "an animal?" He burst into laughter, though no one else knew what was so funny. Ash had a feeling it was just for show; Scotty was probably as on edge as the rest of them. Scotty settled down and finished up his little fit by muttering, "Stupidest thing I ever heard…"

Shelly winced "Well, there's something down there" Scotty nodded profusely; it was only natural to agree with the person you were sexing.

All five of them continued to gaze down the staircase.

"Maybe it WAS just some animal," Linda muttered. Scotty looked up at her, "Yeah, you're probably right." Cheryl shot him a mean look. "Probably just some animal." He turned to her and held a flashlight out, "Here Cheryl, why don't you go down and check?"

"Scotty!" Cheryl scowled at him "I'm not going down there!"

"OK, OK…Coward, I'll go." Scotty trudged on to the first step, never taking his eyes off of the darkness below. Shelly and the others watched as, step by step, he was swallowed by shadow. "Back in a minute." He said reassuringly. Famous last words.

Scotty's footsteps faded as well, and utter silence engulfed the cabin, the eerie silence of waiting that was enunciated again by the sheer absence of wildlife. No crickets, frogs or any other wildlife one would expect this deep in the woods, even the wind was holding it's breath. Dead Silence.

Ashley knelt low over the trapdoor, the suspense was killing him. "Hey Scotty, you find anything?" Ash hated unpleasant surprises. For all he knew, Scotty was down there waiting to jump out and scare him when he went down to check what had happened. Still silence. "Scotty?" he called again. The others started acting a little apprehensive, Linda started wringing her hands and Shelly twirled her hair through her fingers. "Scotty?" Ash called again, leaning over the hole completely. The three girls grouped close together. Whatever got Scotty would probably get Ash next, grabbing him by his head and dragging him down the steps and proceed in mauling him in a particularly unspeakable manner. The silence had almost become an entity itself; standing there, right next to them, filling the room with quiet and their hearts with dread, absolute quiet. "Scott!" Ash yelled again, desperate for word from his friend, a friend whose mangled corpse was undoubtedly lying at the base of the stairs, being feasted upon by a creature not seen by the likes of man for centuries.

Shelly leaned over the hole with Ashley, staring at her boyfriend's grave. "He's just playing around" she turned to Ash "Is he?"

"Scotty!" Ash yelled, as if he could hear them now. "Scott!" his only response was a draft of stale air, wafting up the steps. Ash frowned and turned "I'm getting a flashlight". Linda frowned "He had the only one we brought up." Ashley's eyes swept the room "Then get the lantern" he said, motioning to one sitting on the mantle. Linda lit it and handed the light source to him. Ash started down the stairs until he too was engulfed in darkness. The three girls stared down the hole. Had whatever killed Scotty gotten Ashley too by now? Maybe he was struggling with it, trying to fend it off, prevent it from charging up the stairs to devour the three of them. His face appeared for a second, at the bottom illuminated by the lantern. He stared up at them, then turned and vanished.

Ash trudged down the stairs, step by step, until his feet hit the earthen floor of the cellar. His eyes traced the room, passing various shapes concealed by sheets, unpleasant looking things hanging from the ceiling, herbs and fruit that had long since spoiled, things wrapped in cloth that he didn't even want to know about, a creaking boiler, a door that he had no intention of entering, a projector aimed at a dusty screen and another, darkened alcove.

"Scotty?" Ashley called out into the gloom, not knowing what to expect. His only answer was drips from the creaking pipes above. Suddenly a thump rang out from the door, echoing in the unnatural silence. Ash took a deep breath and slowly crept towards the door, every muscle in his body tensed, ready to turn the other way, or swing the lantern as a weapon if need be. He reached a trembling hand towards the door handle. It opened with an audible click. The door swung wide, leading him further into the darkness. This room had a lot more pipes, and was much darker, more places something unnamable could leap out at you. Ashley stalked the room slowly; his nerves on edge and of course, when Scotty jumped out of the darkness and yelled "BOO!" he nearly wet his pants.

Ash had a good sense of humor and once his heart started beating again, he chuckled along with Scotty. "Hey c'mon, I wanna show you something" Scotty smiled, turning and walking over to a small desk. "Look at all this stuff!" Scotty said, waving his hands over the objects the table was laden with. Notes and sheets mostly, but a few odd looking items that would look out of place anywhere but a cult ritual. Scotty busied himself with something hidden by a stack of papers, while Ash inspected some notes with some sort of cipher written on, a kind of phonetic translation key. "I bet this thing still shoots" Scotty smiled. "Probably does" Ash muttered, not looking up from the odd, archaic symbols. He heard a click and looked up, straight down the twin barrels of a shotgun. He jumped back and laughed nervously as Scotty chuckled with him. Ash thought the gun looked familiar and he was right. He realized that he had seen that firearm countless times before in the Sporting Goods department at S-Mart, the store that he worked at. Ted, the guy who worked at the firearm counter, had told him all about it when it caught his eye. It was a 12 gauge, double barreled Remington, S-marts top of the line, retailed for about 109.95. It had a walnut stock, Cobalt blue steel and a hair trigger. Ashley smirked, shop smart, shop S-mart. Interesting coincidence, it being here. He turned back to the sheets of loose leaf he was studying earlier, when his eyes strayed across something that stood out amongst the papers. It was a book.

It was by far the creepiest looking book he had ever seen. About the size of a large envelope, and as thick as a novel. The cover seemed to be covered with leather, or something similar. It looked incredibly old, as in, Ark of the Covenant old. Ash wondered if he should even be touching it. "Oh god" Ash said, voicing his exact thoughts aloud. "Look at this." He flipped through the pages, which themselves felt odd. They didn't feel like paper. They were dusty and slippery at the same time; it was as if he couldn't feel them, as if the entire book only sort of existed. But the real chill was what was on the pages. Outlined in a reddish-brown ink, there were strange, disturbing images. Cross-sections of a human skull, pictures of strange, deformed creatures, A step by step look at a decaying human arm, maps, a picture that, with a sickening feeling Ash realized, was a man turned inside out and page after page of the same bizarre text he saw on the notes. Ashley noticed a few tattered edges of paper, indicating that some pages had been torn out. What had been on those pages? Did he really want to find out?

Scotty was otherwise interested. "What's this?" he muttered, picking up something that looked like a prop from a cheap horror movie. It resembled a tapering spine, with a bunch of skeletal decorations around the widest bit, forming a handle attached to a blade, a macabre dagger. Scotty inspected a part of the pommel that resembled a screaming skull. "This kinda looks like you're old girlfriend" he joked. Ash smiled, a welcome reprieve from the chilling atmosphere. "C'mon", Scotty said, hoisting a tape recorder as he tucked the dagger under his arm, "Let's take this stuff upstairs." Ash piled together all the notes with the book and grabbed the shotgun. He paused for a second, something was wrong. The situation was creepy enough as it was, but should they really be taking this stuff? Maybe it was left down here for a reason; maybe this whole cabin was abandoned for that same reason. He pushed those thoughts out of his mind as he ascended the stairs after Scotty. Of course nothing would go wrong, stuff like what he was thinking about only happened in movies.

Gasp! The boys have discovered the book! What will happen next? Will the shotgun play a purpose? When did I start this crappy narrating? Tune in next time to find out! Same Evil-time, same Evil-channel!

I wrote this chapter while eating carrots, carrots are good. Help your eyesight. I'm finishing my sixth one right now.


	4. Chapter 4: Knowby's Tape

Cancer Care December 15th

**Chapter 4**

**Knowby's Tape**

The group had brought up the stuff from the cellar. After being appraised and called creepy by Linda and Cheryl, the book was placed on a nearby desk. Ash still couldn't shake a bad feeling about that book, especially after he realized that the decoration on the front resembled a deformed human face.

Scotty had fooled around with the dagger a bit, eventually getting bored with it and placing the grisly weapon on the mantle. Only Ash had spared a second look at the papers.

They were sitting in a circle on the floor now, the large tape recorder resting in the center. Scotty was regaling them with one of his stories, this one about a man he had had an altercation with. "…and he was a real dirtball too"

Cheryl interjected "Just like you!"

"Just like me huh? I oughta break your face" Scotty responded eloquently.

Shelly giggled as Scotty continued "Anyway, he was into westerns and he made these models, right?". Ashley had heard this story before and didn't think that the girls would find it as funny a Scotty did. He had to find a way to shut Scotty up. "Hey guys! Quiet!" he said, moving the tape recorder into the center of the circle. "Let's check this out, it's the tape we found downstairs". He held out a finger and pressed the play button.

"It has been many years since I began excavating the ruins of Candar with my colleagues." The voice sounded slow and deliberate. It definitely belonged to a man, somewhere in his sixties. He sounded like he was recording his findings from some sort of digging project. "Now my wife and I have retreated to a small cabin in the solitude of these mountains. Here I continued my research undisturbed by the myriad of distractions presented by modern civilization and far from the groves of academe. I believe I have made a significant find in the Candarian Ruins, a volume of ancient summoning rituals and funerary incantations. It is entitled "Necrinomicon Ex Mortis", roughly translated, "Book of the Dead". Cheryl glanced over at the book apprehensivly. "The book is bound in human flesh and inked in human blood. It deals with, demons. Demonic forces that roam the forests and dark bowels of man's domain." Thunder and lightning split the sky as it started to rain, Linda held Ashley's hand nervously. "The pages warn that these creatures may lie dormant, but are never truly dead. They may be recalled to active life, or summoned from the hells that spawned them through the incantations of this book. It is also through these passages that the spirits are given license to possess the living, which they must do quickly; lest they lose what little energy they have and return to their slumber."

Cheryl winced and turned off the tape, crossing her arms over her chest.

Scotty turned "Hey, what'd you do that for? It was just getting good!"

"I just, don't want to hear it anymore, that's all"

Scotty smirked and started to make eerie noises, like a Theremin.

"OOEEeeoooooh" he smiled, wiggling his fingers creepily. "EEEoooOOOAAAaaahoooooh"

"That's enough Scotty" Ash muttered, feeling sorry for his little sister.

Scotty smirked "Hey c'mon, I just wanna hear the rest of it." He flicked the tape back on.

"Here are the phonetic translations of these passages," the voice continued.

"Datra amisrobeen, hazartah, Tanteer Manos"

Outside, the soil and dead plants that covered the ground shifted slightly, smoke started to seep in between the branches.

"Zizon pahs zohn sobah, samantoh." The smoke started to pour out from a patch of ground, thicker than before. Strange, smoke in a thunderstorm. The five remained oblivious to what was occurring just a few metres away outside, only Ash and Cheryl seemed the slightest bit edgy.

"Isshayker romanz de rolldka, Kandah." Outside, the patch of ground started to stir as steam rose from the wet ground.

"Shut it off" Cheryl grimaced, staring at the tape recorder as if it were some huge, dead thing.

"Kandahr" the tape continued. Outside the ground seemed the quake. Eerie red light started to shine through cracks in the soil.

"Shut it off" Cheryl repeated, panic rising in her voice. She seemed rooted to the spot, unable to carry out her own request.

"Nosferatus demonoto de maher Kandah!" The voice finished climactically.

Cheryl bolted to her feet, screaming. "SHUT IT OFF!"

Lightning struck outside and a tree branch smashed through one of the windows in the living room. Linda screamed as a twig brushed her face and Ash stumbled backwards. Scotty dashed across the room and turned the lights, which they had switched off earlier for solitude, back on.

Ash surveyed the damage the branch had done as a sobbing Cheryl ran past him to her room. He turned as Shelly followed her. "Cheryl" she said "Where're you going?"

"I don't believe this!" Ashley shouted angrily at Scott, "you didn't have to play that! I mean come on, you knew it was upsetting her, you just don't know when you're taking something too far." He crossed his arms scoldingly and glared at his friend.

"Hey" Scotty rebutted "don't give me that, you were playing it too, you could have shut it off" Ash looked down. He could of, but like the others, it held a morbid fascination.

Scotty continued "Anyway, big deal. She's nuts" Ash turned, no one insulted his sister but him. "It was just a joke, come on!" Ash viciously kicked the shattered glass around the window. Scotty walked away muttering "Christ, she acts like she's three years old or something. Ash sighed and frustratedly shoved the branch back out the window. He fiddled with the shutters, eventually shutting them and then stalked off after Scotty, still fuming.

The group was a little shaken, but were recuperating well enough. Even Cheryl was eventually coaxed out of her room by Linda and Shelly. The five relaxed, unaware of the horrors that they had unleashed.

)))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))

Oh noes! The tape has been played, something has been awoken deep within these woods. What will happen to our intrepid heroes? Well, you probably already know, 'cause you wouldn't be reading this if you didn't.

Ironically, while I was writing this, Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn came on the Scream channel. Creepy…

Ate more carrots while writing this. Carrots are good.

Wearing a denim shirt I tore up to look like Ash's. Go ahead, ask me why MysticGohan, Ask me why.


	5. Chapter 5: Housewares Employee

Cancer Care December 15th

**Chapter 5**

**Housewares Employee**

The glass had been cleaned up, tape recorder put away with the book and notes and peace restored to the cabin. Scotty was crouched in front of a small TV and VCR he had found, rifling through a few videotapes next to it.

"Spider-man, The Quick and the Dead, The Hudsucker Proxy…Darkman?!" Scotty looked up in disgust. "Who the hell owns movies like this?"

Meanwhile, Ash and Linda were sitting together in their room. Ash turned to her, he had an idea. "Listen, why don't we stay up for a bit and listen to the storm?" Linda smiled "Yeah, alright, but let me check on Cheryl first, make sure she's okay" Ash nodded. Cheryl was still pretty shaken from the incident before. Ahs didn't want to admit it, but so was he. He still couldn't shake this ominous feeling, ever since they played that tape, but he had to be strong, for Cheryl.

He watched Linda leave and drew something out of his pocket. It was a small box. He opened it to reveal a necklace, a necklace that he had picked out for her himself. He smiled as he put the lid back on and sat on the sofa. Positioning the box on his knees he rested his head back and pretended to be asleep, waiting for Linda. Linda…

He still remembered how they had first met.

Ashley walked towards the large building looming in front of him. The local S-mart store had been a hang out for him and his buddies when he was younger. He never imagined that he, Ashley J. Williams would be working there one day. He sighed as he walked inside. There he was, on his last year of college when his boss up and fires him for almost no reason. So now, needing money for his last couple weeks of education, he heads everywhere looking for a new job. Finally he has no choice but to head for the only place that will hire him, S-mart.

He dropped off his resume and was happy to be called back. Now he was headed to his first day of work. Wearing the sickeningly bright blue vest over a white shirt, he stepped inside. The man at the door directed him to the manager, who sent him to the housewares aisle. The job didn't encompass much, restocking some shelves, helping the more idiotic customers find the items they were looking for, price tagging things occasionally and, of course, cheerfully spewing out a "Shop smart, shop S-mart!" every once in a while. Ash sincerely felt that he was earning his 12.50 an hour.

Then one day, while he was trying to convince an elderly couple to buy a clock he had broken earlier before the manager found out, he saw her. Their eyes met across the room and she smiled. Ash smiled back. Then the old lady next to him noticed the face on the clock was cracked, and the guy at the checkout counter started to harass the girl. They lost eye contact and each went back to work.

They didn't meet up until 9:00, at the end of there respective shifts.

"Hey!" Ash called out to her, meeting the girl in the parking lot, "We met in the store, I'm Ashley, um, I mean Ash, yeah, I'm Ash. What's you're name?"

The girl smiled "I'm Linda, nice to meet you, Ashley" she giggled.

"Linda" He responded, desperately trying to find the switch to turn on the old Williams charm. "That's a nice name".

"Listen, Ash, I've got to catch my bus, see you tomorrow"

"Oh um, Okay" Ash stopped. _Say something helpful you idiot_ "Wait! I could drive you home!"

Linda turned and, to Ashley's relief, smiled. "Okay, Thanks"

They hit it off from there. Date after date always ended in success. Linda liked Ash for his wit, cute misdemeanor and striking features and Ash liked Linda for her warm, caring personality and the fact that she was a woman.

They could barely concentrate when they were in the same room with each other. Linda would constantly think about Ash, forgetting to scan items at the register and giving them away for free. Ash couldn't even consider thinking about the price of blenders when she was right there. They both graduated from college, but stayed at S-mart solely so they could work together. Then Scotty, Ash's best friend, told him that he and his girlfriend Shelly were headed to a cabin up in the mountains, he invited Ash and Linda and Ash's sister Cheryl tagged along with them. Now here they were.

Linda entered the bedroom and saw Ashley lying on the couch, eyes closed. He seemed to be holding something in his hands. She crept closer, sitting down carefully so as not to wake him. Linda leaned over and stared at the small blue box resting on her boy friends knee. She leaned in close to inspect it, as she did Ash opened his eyes and watched her. She looked up, his eyes were closed. Linda reached out for the box and slowly removed it from his hands. She looked up again, straight into his open eyes.

"Ah ha!" she exclaimed as Ash leaned forward and smiled.

"Ohh" he smirked "Stealing from the blind huh?" Linda giggled as she slowly opened Ashley's present to her. It was a necklace, a thin silver chain with a pendant on the end of it. The pendant was a silver stem leading to a ring surrounding a small lens of glass in the middle. It was beautiful.

"Ash" Linda smiled "How sweet of you. Would you put it on?"

"Sure" Ash smiled as Linda turned around "I was gonna give it to you before we got up here, but things got so hectic, this was the first chance we had to…be alone." Linda admired the pendant as he hooked it on. "Take a look" he said, pointing to a mirror on the wall.

"Oh Ash" Linda said, admiring the reflection. "It's beautiful, I really love it"

She turned and kissed him. "I'll never take it off as long as I live"

Ash drew her in for another kiss. Unbeknownst to them, something was watching, just outside the window. This thing did not know love, it did not know peace or happiness. It knew only pain, fear and suffering. The only joy it took was inflicting these feelings on mortals and the living. It circled the cabin, staring through another window. It lead to the same room, the two figures inside embraced and then sat down by the fire. It passed to another window, the two inside were disrobing in the same room, this could be interesting. It passed again to another window. Inside was a girl, younger than the others, combing her hair. This one was alone. Perfect.

Cheryl was combing her hair when she heard it. Something creaked, a gust of wind maybe. She glanced out the window. Then, the same noise, louder, clearer. She didn't hear it with her _ears_. It was in her head, like a particularly loud thought. It was a voice, deep and sinister. It spoke two words.

"Join Us"

She glanced out the window, into the damp night air. The rain had stopped. Other than the dark night air and a few trees, she couldn't see anything. She wrapped her bed robe tightly around her body and left the room. She wondered how she could have heard that. Had someone outside said it? Who? And why those words? She had to check it out. Knowing the others would just laugh at her if she told them, Cheryl stepped outside onto the cool, wet earth. She looked around and inhaled a deep breath of damp forest air. Ignoring the unnatural silence, Cherylin J. Williams set forth to investigate.

)))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))

Oh dear, here we go. Sorry to anyone who thought that this chapter was kind of slow and wuvvy. The next one will be pure ACTION! And for those who ask me how I will handle the tree scene, my response is "as tastefully as possible" which still will be pretty unpleasant. Be kind, rewind…I mean view, yeah review, not rewind. Stupid.


	6. Chapter 6: Trees

Cancer Care December 15th

**Chapter 6**

**Trees**

Cheryl stared out into the woods. Fog wrapped around the trees, flowing across the ground like a hazy river. It was so thick, she could hardly see anything. "Hello!" she cried out "Is anyone out there?" Her only reply was the same, eerie silence that had hung over the cabin all night. A small gust kicked up, clearing away a small amount of the fog and revealing a trail. A patch of trodden earth that wound off into the darkness of the woods. With nowhere else to go and still gripped by curiosity, she trod down the path and was quickly swallowed by the blackness.

As Cheryl walked slowly through the woods, hunched over and shivering, she reflected on the others at the cabin.

There was Scotty, a brash, irreverent dude if she ever saw one. The guy had almost no respect for anyone, was loud mouthed and irresponsible, and always smelled of Doritos and stale beer. She could see why he and Ashley got along so well. Cheryl's knowledge of Shelly was limited to the fact that Scotty had picked her up in a bar about a week ago, both were presumably very drunk. At this point, Scotty was either sticking with her for the sex, or hadn't gotten around to telling her he wasn't interested.

Cheryl's thoughts strayed to Linda next. She liked Linda. Her quiet dignity, her optimistic nature and caring personality all were redeeming qualities. Cheryl hoped that she and Ash would stick together. Her older brother needed someone like Linda to even him out. He had an impulsive side that could use a bit of smoothing down and could be a little selfish. Linda was really the best thing for him.

Cheryl winced in pain as she stepped on a sharp twig for the umpteenth time, why hadn't she worn shoes? This bit of thought snapped her out of her reverie and caused her to look around. Where the hell was she? The area didn't look familiar. She looked around and was fortunately able to spot the lights of the cabin, though far off, through the trees. At least she knew her way back.

Cheryl heard a rustle of leaves, a snap of a twig. On any other night, she would have dismissed it as an animal, but she hadn't heard any evidence of any wildlife the entire time, so the noises just proceeded to unnerve her even more. "I know someone's out there" she yelled into the darkness. The silent, foggy blackness seemed to mock her, like it found her apprehension humorous. "I heard you" she cried "I heard you in the cellar." The more she spoke, the more Cheryl realized how stupid this was. What if she did find whatever had been making these noises? What next? "Hah! I knew you were some psycho killer, waiting in the woods for us to come out so you could dismember us one by one! Go me!" Cheryl turned to head back, when she heard a crack, like the sound of a branch being snapped in half. She heard it again. It was like someone was uprooting one of the trees. Cheryl backed up slowly, not daring to breath. Something was out there. Something big.

That particular something was currently speeding through the fog, skimming across the ground, for it had no legs. It smashed over a sapling.

Cheryl turned and screamed. What was out there? She could sense something; it was coming towards her, but from what direction? She gasped as she turned slowly. So absorbed by what might be coming, she neglected to mind what was already there. A root from a nearby tree slowly wormed it's way out of the ground, near Cheryl's foot. Another low branch bent down, followed by another, somehow attracted to the girl. One crossed another as more roots burst from the ground and together, they struck.

The roots wound around Cheryl's legs. She screamed in disgust and horror as braches wrapped around her arms and neck, tugging at her limbs. They forced her arms out at straight angles, forcing her to grip larger branches. The sound of tearing fabric filled the air as the wooden assailants ripped at her bathrobe, tearing apart the sleeves and collar, oblivious to Cheryl's screams of terror. Eventually the tattered piece of white fabric was torn away from her body, leaving the girl in a T-shirt and panties. The roots grabbing her ankles suddenly yanked her feet away from her, causing the terror-stricken young girl to land on her back. The twigs around her hands loosed, giving her the chance to tear at the ones wrapped around her neck. More roots wound their way around her calves and thighs. The branches around her wrists renewed their efforts, forcing her arms out at right angles, leaving her almost unable to move. She gasped, looking down the length of her body as the roots slowly pulled her legs apart, leaving her spread-eagled. A single, hefty branch stabbed forward, between her legs. Cheryl screamed louder than she ever had in her entire life.

It seemed to last forever, until Cheryl, adrenaline pumping through every vein, tore one of her hands free. She ripped the choking vines from her neck, and bit and tore at the ones on her left wrist. She finally used both hands to tear her legs free.

This entire time, the something that had been coming was finally there. It smashed through the brush as Cheryl stood up, tearing the last of the branches and leaves from her hair. She stopped and turned. She couldn't see it, but she could hear it and she knew it was there, she could sense it flying straight at her, horrible clawed hands at the end of bony arms, a low, guttural roar emanating deep from a fleshless throat, escaping between jagged, broken teeth. Cheryl accepted the oldest, most primitive human response to danger like this. Cheryl ran.

She dashed through the forest, not caring about the branches whipping at her exposed body, or the stones cutting the soles of her feet. She breathed heavily, each exhale came with a gasp. This couldn't be happening; none of it could be real. The ground abruptly sank into a small dip in the earth. Cheryl twisted and stumbled. She lay there, clutching her ankle in pain. It might be sprained. That was just what she needed, above all else, a sprained ankle. Suddenly a crack rang out as the unrelenting force toppled another small tree in its pursuit. It roared as it lunged at the prone figure of Cheryl, she stumbled to her feet and once again took flight. Her breath was ragged in her throat, her muscles ached and her veins seemed to pump acid, but still she ran. Towards the lights visible through the trees, towards the cabin. She tripped again, falling and struggling to regain her footing. She felt one of the beings claws swipe at her shins, tearing open another long cut along her calf. She was almost there, branches snatched at her hair, clutching at her arms, grabbing at her. Cheryl stumbled through the tall grass surrounding the left side of the cabin. She clawed forward, reverting to all fours to make the last eight meters. Cheryl flung herself across the porch and against the door, beating against it with her bare hands. "Let me in!" she screeched, panic coursing through her voice. "Ashley!"

The force barreled through the tall grass, tearing it from its roots. It was almost upon her. Cheryl pounded at the door, screaming. She suddenly remembered how Scotty had gotten in the first time. Reaching up, she felt along the upper threshold of the door, feeling for what she prayed was still there. Yes! Her hands closed around a ring of keys. She pulled it down, wrenching the end from a nail stud. She slotted the first key into the hole turning, please let it be this one. Nothing. Cherylin screamed in frustration and terror. Her heart thumping in her chest, she inserted the next key and twisted it. This had to be it!

The thing bounded across the flat stones leading up to the cabin, it clawed up the three stairs and fled across the front porch.

Cheryl abruptly dropped the keys; she collapsed to her knees to retrieve them, when a hand suddenly grabbed her wrist. Cheryl screamed again and looked up, straight into the eyes of her older brother. She grabbed him, forcing her way into the cabin turned around and slammed the door shut.

The presence stood in front of the door for a few seconds, cursing its luck. The girl already had their mark upon her and it was only a matter of time before she joined them, but it would have so dearly liked to claim her itself. It would have, if not for the male. Now she was within the human structure, a structure it could not enter without a physical form, or an open door or window. There would be a reckoning for the blue-garbed one. Count on it. With a loathsome and enraged howl, it turned and fled back into the darkness of the forest.

)))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))

Well, that certainly was an eventful chapter. And let me tell you, the rape scene was as hard to write as it is to read. Talk about rough sex. Well now that that's taken care of, we can really hunker down and get to the good stuff. This next one goes out to MysticGohan, as far as I can tell, my only reader so far. I hate DragonBall.


	7. Chapter 7: It Won't Let Us Leave

Cancer Care December 15th

**Chapter 7**

**It Won't Let Us Leave**

Ash was shocked. He had opened the door when he heard the knocking, not knowing what to expect. It might have been Scotty doing another prank, or possibly Shelly, having locked herself out. He never expected his sister, on her hands and knees, wearing torn-apart clothes and white as a ghost. She forced her way inside and slammed the door shut. Cheryl looked as though she had been attacked by a wild animal, covered in cuts and bruises, her clothing was barely hanging on and acting as though she had seen a monster. The others ran in and Linda grabbed a coat, handing it to Cheryl, who wrapped it around herself in between sobs.

Scotty, as usual, was the first to speak. "What happened to you?"

Ash continued that thought. "Cheryl what happened? What's the matter? Did something in the woods do this to you?"

"No!" Cheryl gasped, "It was the woods themselves!" This made no sense to Ash, but that just made him worry about his sister more.

"They're alive Ashley!" She sobbed, burying her self in his arms. Ash knew that whatever had happened was serious, if she was calling him by his full name in front of his friends. He knew his sister, she didn't scare easily. Whatever happened out there had to have been something serious.

Linda spoke up, trying to be the voice of reason. "Ash, why don't I take her in the back room, so she can lie down and-"

"I'm not lying down!" Cheryl screamed. The girl was hysterical. "I wanna get out of here!" she turned back to her brother, gripping him by the collar. "I need to leave this place right now! Right now Ashley!"

"Wait a minute" Scotty broke in "I'm sure as hell not leavin' _any_ place tonight"

Shelly and Linda both tried to say _something _

"Cheryl…"

"Cheryl"

Ash one more time to subdue his sister. "Cheryl, there's nothing out there! Trees do not attack people!"

"Ashley!" Cheryl yelled, more forcefully this time. "Will you drive me into town or not?"

"Right now?" Ash winced. He stared into his sister's eyes. He saw little else but panic and desperation. "Sure, sure, I'll take you into town but just, listen to what your saying, feeling a little hysterical and desperate himself.

"I don't care how it sounds!" Cheryl said through gritted teeth. "I wanna get out of this place right now!" She started shoving her arms through the sleeves of her jacket.

"Ok, okay" Ashley finally gave up; he never could win a fight with his sister. "You can stay somewhere in town tonight" He grabbed his own jacket, pulling it on as he stepped out the door.

The two Williams siblings stepped outside and into the moist night air. Cheryl made a beeline for the car as Ash was still trudging down the steps.

The other three watched from the door as Cherylin and Ashley got in. Everyone had been unnerved by Cheryl's desperation and panic. What could have done that to her? Why was she ranting about the trees?

"C'mon" Ash muttered as his ancient cars engine struggled to work. After the third try, he slumped forward, staring out the window at his friends with a tired look on his face.

"I know it's not going to start" Cheryl said after the sixth try, panic rising in her voice again. "It's not gonna let us leave."

Finally, it caught on the seventh try. The headlights flared as the car lurched into gear. Ashley managed a small smile at his sister as they backed up and drove off down the forest road. Scotty and the others sighed, watched them go, turned around and reentered the cabin.

The two drove down the road in silence, Cheryl not caring what happened, as long as she and Ash got out of there and Ash wondering what had happened to his sister and if there would be any cherry pie left when he got back. Suddenly he noticed something. The car ground to a halt as he stared out the windshield. The headlights couldn't pierce this unnatural gloom.

Cheryl turned "Why are we stopping?"

Ashley got out to inspect the road leading to the bridge. As he got closer, he rubbed his eyes to make sure he was looking at what he thought he was. What the hell? Ash trudged forward for a closer look.

Cheryl leaned out the window of her brother's car. "Do you see something?" she shouted into the darkness Ash had walked into. Foggy silence greeted her, punctuated by the creaking and groans of wood. "Where are you going?" He didn't answer. "Ashley?" She prayed that her brother hadn't fallen victim to the trees. If he had, what then? Should she continue without him? Should she go back and warn the others? Maybe he needed her help?

Cheryl opened the car door, stepping onto the cold earth. She walked forward, warily hunched over in case something decided to leap out at her. She gasped as a tree branch swung down low. It didn't move after that. Cheryl ducked underneath it and continued towards the bridge, in search of her brother. The headlights illuminated the bridge as she stepped forward, taking in the whole, horrific scene. Cheryl turned. No, she thought, no no no. It was too much to take in. She dashed back to the car and yelped as Ash grabbed her. She started to cry again. "It's not going to let us go!" she screamed. It won't let us go!"

Ash tried to say something, anything to calm down Cheryl but she couldn't hear any of it.

"Why won't you listen to me!" she yelled, "It won't let us leave!"

Ash stared at his sister as she collapsed to the ground, crying. He honestly couldn't help her, mostly because he was also freaked out. He moved his gaze over to the bridge. The bridge that had been warped by some incredible force. The bridge that had been torn apart so that no one could cross it. He could do nothing but stare at it; the planks and beams used to support it had been curled up, distorted into the shape of, a hand. A hand that seemed grasp at them, a hand that seemed to consciously both want to stop them and also was reaching out at them. Like the road was an arm, leading up to this hand that wouldn't let them leave.

)))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))

Yikes! What is this? The bridge is out in the most horrible way possible and the others are starting to believe what Cheryl be preaching. Will our heroes survive the night? Will the tree that got Cheryl ever call back? And why, oh why did I cut this chapter short just to create phony dramatic tension? Stay Tuned!


	8. Chapter 8: Look Who's Evil Now

Cancer Care December 15th

**Chapter 8**

**Look Who's Evil Now**

"_I suspect that my wife has, become host to a…Candarian demon. I fear that the only way to stop those possessed by the spirits of the book is through the act of, bodily dismemberment. I would leave now to spare myself this horror, but…I have seen the dark shadows moving through the woods and I have little doubt that whatever I have resurrected through the book, is sure to come calling, for me…"_

Peace and quiet had been restored to the cabin. Scotty was outside chopping wood, Cheryl had reverted to staring out the window despondently, Ash was listening intently to the increasingly ominous passages on the tape recorder and Shelly had convinced Linda to help her test her psychic abilities.

News of the bridge hadn't gone over very well. Ashley had told them that, considering they would be there the whole week, the bridge would probably be fixed by the time they needed to get back, if not, then at least they could find a way around the gorge.

"Ok, let me think…ummm" Shelly sat there, trying to tune into some sort of ethereal wavelength. Linda sat across from here, holding a single playing card. Shelly focused "It's a…seven". Linda looked up "What suit?" Shelly focused harder. "Diamonds..no, no, hearts, seven of hearts." Linda glanced down at the nine of diamonds. "You're right!" she smiled "How'd you do that?"

An ecstatic Shelly turned to Ashley, hoping that this might attract his attention. "Hey Ash! I guessed the card right!"

Ash didn't even look up from the tape recorder on his lap. "Yeah Shelly" he droned disinterestedly "truly amazing." Shelly scowled, she just wanted to get to know Ash, but he was always wrapped up in whatever he was doing or Linda to notice. She turned back to Linda, who had drawn another card.

"I really think this sort of thing might be an extra sense, like ESP or something."

"Ok" Linda said holding the card up. "Try this one."

Shelly scrunched up her face in concentration "Seven" she guessed.

"I don't believe it!" Linda laughed as she quickly put away the eight of hearts. As she drew a third card, Cheryl, not looking away from the window, spasmed suddenly and muttered "Queen of, spades…"

Linda glanced down at the card in her hands and her eyes widened at what she saw. She was holding that exact same card. Linda glanced at the next card in the deck.

"Four of spades" Cheryl hissed. Linda drew another card. Still staring out the window, Linda snarled "Eight of hearts".

Linda and Shelly stared at the handful of cards Linda was holding as Cheryl recited each one loudly.

"Two of spades!" she yelled "Jack of Diamonds! Ace of clubs!"

Cheryl whipped around, but this was not the Cheryl the people in the cabin knew. Her skin had taken on a sickly green colour, her hair was coarse and dirty, blood and pus flowed from the cuts on her face, arms and legs. The most horrible thing however, was her eyes, they were a milky white, it was as if her pupils and irises had just, disappeared.

The Cheryl-thing shrieked as she rose up into the air, hovering a foot off of the ground.

Ash snapped out of his engrossment with the tape, taking in the whole, macabre scene. His girlfriend and his buddy's girlfriend huddled in fear on the floor in front of his sister, who appeared to be doing her best Linda Blaire impression.

"Why have you disturbed our sleep?" Cheryl roared in a deep baritone voice. Something appeared to be speaking through her, as her lips were hardly moving. "Awakened us from our ancient slumber?" Cheryl's arms jerked upwards like a marionette. "You will die! Nightmare is before you!" she continued, writhing in midair. "One by one we will take you! You will fall like others before you!" The creature finished its announcement with a ghastly roar, dropping to the ground as though whatever had been controlling her had dropped the strings. She lay there, splayed on the floor, unmoving.

The three stood there in the living room in silence, none of them hardly daring to believe what had just happened. They were in absolute shock at what had just occurred. The silence was broken as Scotty walked back into the cabin, carrying the axe he had just been using to cut firewood. He surveyed the scene and eventually spoke.

"What the hell happened to her?"

Linda was the first to approach her fallen friend. Ash could hardly move his legs and Shelly was assuming the fetal position. Linda knelt down by Cheryl's limp form, overlooking her maligned body. Ashley finally found the strength to move, walking over and crouching next to Linda.

"Did you see her eyes?" Linda shuddered "I'm scared Ash. What's wrong with her?" Ash stared at his sister; still not sure he could speak. He slowly reached out to her, maybe he could stir her awake, but did he really want to? As he was reaching out to her, one of Cheryl's hands reached out, grasping a pencil Shelly had dropped. Just as Ash was about to touch her, Cheryl's eyes snapped open and her mouth split into a wicked, toothy grin. She sat bolt upright, turned and stabbed the pencil into Linda's ankle. Linda, of course, screamed blue murder as Cheryl twisted the pencil in the wound like an awl. She brought the grisly utensil out, rearing for another strike, when Ash grabbed the hand holding it. Cheryl undauntedly slapped Linda hard enough to send her sprawling across the floor. She turned to her brother, grabbing him and throwing him across, where he hit a shelving unit and collapsed unconscious as the shelf promptly fell on him. Cheryl cackled.

Ashley regained consciousness a second later. Oh thank god, he thought. I had this terrible dream that Cheryl was a monster and that she had stabbed Linda. It's over now an-wait, why can't I move? What's that snarling? Ash opened his eyes. Aw shit.

Cheryl advanced on the prone form of her brother, who was struggling to remove himself from under the fallen shelf. She lurched closer, clutching the bloody pencil. Scotty finally intervened, grabbing his friend's sister. "Cheryl! Stop this!" he yelled. The Cheryl in question disregarded him, throwing him across the room like the others. Ash scrambled to free himself as Cheryl got within stabbing distance. Scotty picked himself up and charged at Cheryl, striking her head with the butt of his axe. She fell backwards, landing near the open basement trapdoor. As she struggled to her feet, Scotty viciously kicked her in the head, causing her to tumble down the steps to the cellar. He grabbed the trapdoor, slamming it shut. Cheryl pushed it open, attempting to crawl out. Scotty smacked her with the axe handle again, then a third and fourth time. He slammed the door shut on Cheryl's fingers, stomping them with the head of the axe until they withdrew. Scotty threw himself on top of the hatch, attempting to chain it shut. He threaded the chain through both eyelets, finally snapping the padlock shut as the entire thing bucked wildly from Cheryl's struggling. Scotty panted as the rattling subdued and finally stopped.


	9. Chapter 9: What the fuck was that?

Cancer Care December 15th

**Chapter 9**

**What The Fk Was That?**

An anxious, fragile sort of peace had been restored to the cabin. Scotty was sitting by the fire with Shelly. Ash was helping Linda into bed, she needed to lie down to stay off of her injured ankle and rest after a shock like that. Meanwhile, the Cheryl-thing was sitting on the top steps of the cellar stairs, peering out through the gap between the trapdoor and the floor.

Ash stood over Linda's unconscious form, draped in a nightgown. She seemed so peaceful, her breathing was steady and her ankle was bandaged. Ash could hardly imagine how she could sleep so restfully after what had just happened to Cheryl. Cheryl… Ashley couldn't believe what had happened to her. What _had_ happened to her? First she disappears into the woods and comes back beaten and bloody, she freaks out over the broken bridge, then she goes all Linda Blair and stabs Linda.

He tried to find a logical explanation to his sister's sudden psychosis. Some sort of disease contracted from contaminated water? No, they all had bottled water or beer since coming. Maybe a parasite, some sort of bug under her skin…Nah, too far fetched.

Ash realized he couldn't fall to pieces now, not when everyone was counting on Scotty and him, he had to stay composed, for all their sakes. Ashley bent over and kissed Linda lightly on the cheek, then left the room, closing the door behind him.

Cheryl peered up through the small gap, watching from the darkness. She slowly ran a sickly green and gnarled hand across the floor and chains. Rasping breath escaped her lungs as Cheryl-thing watched Scotty and Shelly crouching next to the fire. They kept on glancing over their shoulders at her, with fearful and sickened looks on their pale faces.

She turned as Ash trudged back into the room, stepping over the fallen shelves as he walked towards the other two.

"Ash" Scotty said, trying to sound official "I think we oughta get out of here" He had a hard time keeping the tremor out of his voice.

"Yeah" Ashley responded weakly, blankly staring at the trapdoor "It's, It's just a few more hours 'till morning"

"I don't think I can wait that long!" Shelly snapped. "We have to" Scotty said, standing "We all have to!" He said more forcefully, as if trying to convince himself as much as anybody. "And then, in the morning, we'll get in the car and take the bridge to…" He stopped, he had forgotten about the state of the bridge.

Shelly stood up, screaming, "Why won't she stop making those awful noises!" in response to Cheryl's growls and guttural noises.

"I don't know!" Ash yelled back, glad to finally have an excuse to shout.

"Her eyes…" Shelly trembled, dropping to her knees. "Her eyes…" She couldn't tear herself away from the white milky irises in Cheryl's head.

"For god's sake!" Shelly howled "What happened to her eyes!"

Cheryl slunk down lower into the darkness of the basement, still staring up at the crack of light shining down at her. A growl trembled deep in her throat, growing louder, she breathed heavily as the rasping cries reached a high pitch. She was laughing, a high, mocking, terrible laugh that reverberated around the cabin, sending all inside into a deeper circle of dread.

Outside, the nameless horror than had taken Cheryl was stirring once more, writhing and undulating as the ghost of Cheryl's laughter reached it's ears. The signal had been given, it moved forwards, gliding low across the ground, over stumps and bushes, ducking low through ravines, it growled as it came closer.

"Everything's gonna be alright" Scotty said, placing a hand on Shelly's knee as they crouched by the fire. Shelly stared into the flames, not heeding Scotty's words.

The presence was closer now, gaining momentum and speed as it traveled, the low grow turning into a roar. It circled the cabin, staying just outside the clearing, searching for an opening, a way in. Shelly stood and walked over to the window, staring out at the foggy landscape surrounding her. Suddenly a patch of mist stirred, as if something were moving through it. A twig snapped, a patch of scrub rustled slightly. Shelly grimaced and turned to Scotty "I think there's something out there…" The unnamable thing was staring straight at her, not ten feet away. Scotty stood up, walking over to his girlfriend. "Go to bed Shelly" he sighed "get some sleep okay?" His voice was unusually soft, border lining an actual caring tone. Shelly nodded as she headed towards her room, maybe a bit of sleep would do her good. She sighed as she took her sweater off. She felt a little stuffed up, some fresh air would help. Shelly stepped over to the windows and flung them wide, providing, among other things, a clear shot and opening for the evil force to take Shelly.

A piercing scream echoed through the cabin as Shelly's soul was ripped from her body. Scotty looked up from the skeletal dagger from the basement and met eyes with Ash. Scotty dropped the grisly weapon and stood up, walking towards the door. Ash felt as though he couldn't move. Scotty's fingers rested lightly on the handle, then tightened as he flung the door wide, marching into the darkened room. The window was open, letting a slight breeze through the room. The sheets on the bed had been ripped a part, as though a badger had been tucked under the covers and the bedside lamp had been knocked over, the bulb shattered. Scotty swallowed as he surveyed the room; Shelly was nowhere to be seen.

He walked over to the open window, trudging over broken glass. Whatever tore up the bed had ripped the shutters off and shattered the windows. He poked his head out the window, gazing of into the wooded distance, had something forced its way in? Was it still here? Scotty withdrew his head, when he heard a rattle from the direction of the closet. It was a small curtained alcove. Scotty approached it cautiously. As he warily reached out and grabbed the doorknob, Scotty took a deep breath and opened it. A few shirts and pants leapt out to greet him, but other than that, no one was there. Scotty's relief was once again turned to wariness as he glanced at the only other place his girlfriend could be. The bathroom. "Shelly?…" Scotty said, creeping towards the door that led to the washroom. The door seemed to swing open as he approached, permitting him entrance. He looked inside, afraid of what he might find. Nothing. Not a soul. He walked past the sink and toilet towards the bathtub, the shower curtain drawn. Scotty silently reached out to the curtain, throwing it wide. It was empty, save the tub filled with soapy water; Shelly must have been running a bath. He turned to go, and came face to sunken, pale face with Shelly. She grabbed him by the throat with one hand and with the other, dragged a nail across his brow, cutting a long gash across the left side of his face. Scotty's screams alerted Ash, who bolted up as the bizarre duo crashed through the door into the main living room. Shelly had her arms and legs wrapped around him and appeared to be chewing on his face. She had the same pale bluish skin, the same shriveled features and guttural voice as Cheryl and her eyes, she had the same white, soulless eyes. "No!" Ash screamed as his friend struggled with the hideous thing. "Not Shelly too!"

Gasp and shock! Shelly be gone to! Scotty is proving to be the brave one, Ash needs some help and Linda is out of commission! Sorry about the long wait, I had a lot of personal crap going down over the last couple of weeks. But I'm back! I'm rested and I'm full of vim an' vigor. Updates will come sooner, but for now, Peace out!


	10. Chapter 10: Shelly Too

Cancer Care December 15th

**Chapter 10**

**Shelly Too**

Scotty lurched around the cabin, Shelly still clinging to him, apparently determined to remove his face from his head. Ash scanned the room, panicked to find something he could use to help his friend. His eyes rested on the wrecked shelf, the primeval dagger, even the axe Scotty had been using to chop wood just hours before. Scotty had bigger problems however. He finally loosened Shelly's grip on his neck and viciously head butted her in the face. She fell backwards and Scotty used this leverage to shove her off of him. Shelly tumbled, right into the burning fire. She screamed and writhed in pain on the hearthstones as the smell of burning flesh and hair filled the room. "He-Help me!" She screeched in Shelly's voice. "Help me!"

Scotty gasped as he reached out and grabbed Shelly's feet, pulling her out of the fire.

"Thank you" the thing-that-really-wasn't-Shelly whispered mockingly to Scotty in a warped, evil voice "I don't know what I would have done, if I had remained on those hot coals, what would happen to my pretty flesh" Scotty knelt down beside her. Most of the hair and skin on the upper left side of her face was gone, burnt away. "My pretty skin" She reached out to grab Scotty. "Let me have some of yours!" She started to strangle him. All this time, Cheryl was pounding on the cellar door, as if trying to rip it off of its hinges. This just added to the pandemonium.

Scotty gasped for breath as Ash ran across the room to pry Shelly off of him. Shelly backhanded him powerfully and didn't even glance in his direction as, for the second time in as many hours, he smashed into a shelf, causing it to collapse on top of him. "Join us!" Shelly screamed, pushing Scotty towards the fire "Join usss!" Ash struggled to free himself, pushing the wooden shelf off. Scotty screamed as Shelly, one hand still gripping Scotty's throat, drew the Candarian dagger. The spinal sheath fell away, revealing a long, sharp blade, still gleaming despite centuries of neglect. She raised the weapon over her head, thrusting it towards his chest. Scotty caught the blade, prolonging his life for the moment, but his strength was ebbing away against Shelly's supernatural strength. In an act of desperation, he reached into his pocket, pulling out his penknife. He brought it high and stabbed it into the wrist of Shelly's dagger-hand. Shelly screeched as the knife drew blood, thick, viscous black blood. Ash had finally managed to get up and was holding the axe. He rushed towards the gruesome pair, ready to do the unthinkable. He stopped as his grip on the axe weakened. Shelly had stopped writhing in pain and was holding her injured hand, which now apparently had no feeling in it, up to her mouth. She bit down chewing at her own flesh. Ash couldn't take this, he cried out in disgust and horror, but was unable to look away. Shelly continued to gnaw away at her ravaged limb, blood and pus rolling from her mouth. Scotty backed away from her, pushing himself along the ground, away from the disgusting spectacle. The last of Shelly's wrist bone broke, letting her tear the rest off, blood squirting from the ragged stump. Ash stood rooted to the spot, hugging the axe like a teddy bear, feeling like he was going to puke. As the amputated hand, still clutching the dagger, fell to the ground, Scotty grabbed it, prying the cold, dead fingers off. He swing around and stabbed it through her back, the blade going straight through her and poking out the other side. Shelly moaned and screamed, fumbling with the knife in her back. She keeled over, spasming. Ash still just stood there, shifting his weight from foot to foot. Shelly was lying on the floor, still howling. Scotty stood up as white pus spewed from her mouth and stump. The two guys both could do little but stare. Finally, she stopped writhing and was still.

Silence crept back into the cabin. Scotty looked up from his mangled girlfriend at Ash as he shot him a "Feel-free-to-step-in-any-time" look. Ash disregarded it, still staring at the mutilated corpse, gripping the axe with white knuckles. Scotty slowly walked around her body, feeling guilt, disgust, sadness and then fear as Shelly sat up and grabbed him by the neck again. Apparently, she wasn't dead. Cheryl burst into laughter. Scotty tore free from her grip, moving backwards towards Ash. "Hit her!" he yelled at his friend, the one holding the axe. "Hit it!" he screamed. Ash was backed up against the wall, unable to move. Scotty grabbed the axe from Ashley's hands, charging forward, swinging it high over his head and bringing it down on his possessed girlfriend. The force of the blow sent Shelly to her knees, blood oozing down her shirt from the axe imbedded in her shoulder. Scotty wrenched it free, swinging it again. Again. Again. The pounding of axe, through flesh, on wood echoed through the cabin. Blood sprayed from her like the worlds most unpleasant sprinkler. Garbled screams came from Shelly until her head was shorn from her body. Ash stared in horror at his friend, a look of terror overshadowed by a look of grim determination as he pounded away at her like a block of wood. The swinging continued long after the last of Shelly's dismembered body parts stopped writhing. "Stop…" Ash muttered as Scotty still continued to swing, a blank look on his face. "STOP!" he screamed at Scotty. Scotty stopped. "Stop…" Ash said, collapsing to his knees. "Stop."

Scotty dropped the axe, shocked at what he had just done, what he had just been doing. "Scott" Ash said weakly, trying to find the will to speak. "Yeah?" Scotty replied, sounding distant, trying to be calm. "W-what is- What're we gonna do?" Ash trembled. Scotty turned to his shaken friend. "We're gonna bury her." He said firmly. She deserved at least that, a proper burial. "We, we can't bury Shelly. She's-She's a friend of ours-" "Ash she's dead!" Scotty shouted, breathing heavily. He stared at the grisly heap of body parts. "Shelly's dead." Ash couldn't look at either of them. "We gotta bury her now."

Bring out your dead! Bring out your dead! Good times at the cabin in the woods. This just may be the most graphic thing I've ever written. Ash's a bit of a wimp here, but I'm sure that'll change. Review, explore, be happy.


	11. Chapter 11: Death Is A Bitch

Cancer Care December 15th

**Chapter 11**

**Death is a Bitch**

It was damning work, gathering the body parts together in a bed sheet. At one point, Ash had to pause in order to throw up. They managed fold one half of the sheet over the other and lift it up by the four corners. Inhibited by the weight, the two friends maneuvered like a drunken crab, Shelly's remains swinging between them, out the door. The foggy night air engulfed them as the duo moved outside. Ash stumbled and tripped. A hand dropped out of the makeshift shroud. Choking back bile, he grabbed it and stuffed the limb back inside, blood was seeping through the bottom of the sheet. They moved farther out, past the ring of trees surrounding the property and laid Shelly next to a patch of damp earth. The pair worked in total silence, stabbing at the earth with their shovels, digging away until a suitable hole had been created. With a wince, they lowered her into the pit. The hole was filled and Scotty rolled a stone, a makeshift grave marker, over the loose soil. Lightning illuminated the mournful scene. Rain was coming again.

The walk back to the cabin seemed slower, heavier than the outgoing trip. Ash locked the door behind them and went to check on Linda. When he returned, Scotty was staring out the window as rain began to fall. "Linda's still sleeping" Ash said, finally breaking the silence. "I think we sh-" "I'm getting out of here." Scotty cut him off. Ash turned "Scott, we can't take Linda anywhere with a leg like that." Scotty didn't look at him. "We don't even know if there is a way back besides the bridge!" Ash realized that Scotty was trembling. Everything that he had been holding in since he had dismembered Shelly was spilling out. "Well, maybe there's an old hiking trail, or a road, or some other way around the cliff" Ash looked at Scotty, confounded, his friend was never this desperate. "I mean" Scotty continued "There's gotta be another way besides the bridge!" Ash protested "Listen to me, Linda can't walk with her ankle, she can't even stand up!" Scotty frowned "Well then, we'll leave her here. Until we can send somebody back." He had crossed the line, how could Scotty think like that? "Are you crazy? She-" Scotty cut him off again "Look, I'm getting out!" he yelled. Ash couldn't believe he was hearing this. Scotty was always the brave one, the steady persona that anchored the rest of them. But now, what he was suggesting…"I don't care what happens to her" Scotty said fiercely. "She's your girlfriend, you take care of her. I'm getting the hell outta here, right now!" He turned and marched away, grabbing his coat on the way to the door. It opened briefly and shut. Ash watched from the window as Scotty walked away and was quickly engulfed by the foggy blackness surrounding the cabin. At the moment, Ash could feel nothing but contempt for his friend, abandoning him like this. He stood in front of the door, wondering what to do next, when Cheryl spoke, poking her head from up from beneath. "Soon, all of you will be like me" She rasped in a distorted, guttural voice. Then who'll lock you up in a cellar?" She broke into another fit of horrible, heaving laughter. Ash could do little but cover his ears and run down the hall, away from his sisters mocking stare.

Ash opened the door of Linda's room. He would stay with her for now, keep her company. Maybe Scotty would send for help, maybe he had found his way out and was trying to flag down a car. Maybe he would tell the police and they would send a helicopter to evacuate Linda. Maybe he wasn't. Maybe help wasn't coming. Maybe he was just trying to get as far away as possible. Maybe he was lost in the woods. Maybe he was dead.

Ash buried his face in his hands. How had everything gone so wrong? He had just wanted to spend a week out in the woods with his friends. Cheryl had tagged along and look what had happened to her. Scotty was gone, Shelly was dead and Linda was injured. He traced his thoughts back to the tape recorder. Had all of this really begun with that tape? With that book? He glanced over at it, resting on the writing desk next to the tape recorder; the leathery face on the front seemed to be watching him, like the eyeless sockets were staring at him. Ashley turned back to Linda. As long as she was here, he at least had something to fight for. Everything about her was so true and pure. It would be all right, things would turn out fine.

Speaking of which, Linda's would needed checking, to make sure everything was okay, no infection. Ash turned on the light and knelt down next to Linda's unconscious body. He drew back the sheets, inspecting the wound. It was an ugly black colour; it seemed to be, festering slightly. Ashley gasped as a network of thin black lines spider webbed their way out of the cut like ice cracking. They wrapped around her foot, spreading up her leg. It was like an infection, some sort of horrible virus spreading from the wound. Linda's eyes snapped open. They were both a pale white. She sat upright and started to giggle through a mouth of pointed teeth as Ash stood up, backpedaling wildly out of the room. He didn't stop there. Horrified, he continued to dash backwards down the hallway, through the living room and out the front door. Ashley stood there, panting. He stared down the hall, expecting Linda to come barreling down after him. Nothing. Ashley didn't have time to comprehend what had just happened, however, as something lunged at him from the right, wrapping it's arms around him.

For a second Ash tried to shove the bloody, grizzled thing off of him, it was howling something, attempting to dig its fingers into his back. As the adrenaline clouding his thoughts from the initial shock faded, he realized that this bloodied, injured thing was Scotty. He was howling Ash's name pleadingly and was wrapped around him for support. As Ash looked down Scotty's beaten form, he realized it was a miracle that he was standing at all. Several large gashes were open and bleeding all over his body. One of his eyes was swollen shut from bruising and it looked as though he was missing a piece of his left ear. "Oh my god" Ash gasped, pulling his friend up and across the room. "H-help me..." Scotty muttered, rasping for breath. Ashley stumbled as he half guided, half carried his friend across the room. He heard a high-pitched giggle from the hallway. If he had looked in that direction, he would have seen Linda sitting cross legged on the floor, watching them through blank eyes with a needle-toothed grin spread across her face. Scotty dropped onto the couch with a stiff moan. He looked as though someone had stuffed him into a blender. A long cut wound across his face, from between his eyes to the right side of his mouth. One of his legs was stiff, it looked broken. "Oh" Ash said, staring at a grisly wound where Scotties left pinky and ring finger used to be. "Scott, you're gonna be okay" he said, lying through his teeth. He had no idea how to treat wounds this serious. He would know if he had done better at college, gone to med school like he had always hoped he would, payed attention in class, hadn't dropped out. Ash could think of a million things that he had done that had caused this. A million things that he could have done if he had been smarter. Scotty needed medical attention, something Ash couldn't give him. He needed a doctor. He needed to call 911. Christ! Hadn't anyone brought a cell phone up here? He should have, it would have helped. Oh god, Scotty's moaning again. What do I do?

Stop it. This voice came from the single part of his head that wasn't panicking, yelling or running in circles muttering to itself. It was his center, the hard core of Ash's mind that always tried to keep the other parts in line. Scotty needs help, there's no time to think about your self. You brought a first-aid kit up here didn't you? Start with that.

His train of thought was cut off by another high-pitched giggle from Linda. Ash walked across the room, the two staring at each other as he grabbed the first-aid kit and ran back to Scotty. "Ash" Scotty groaned as Ashley tried to spread the small tube of Polysporine over his maimed body "It's not gonna let us leave" Ash looked down at Scotty's bloodied torso. With a sickening jolt, he saw a large splinter sticking out of Scott's midsection. He didn't know if removing the thing was safe, so he left it there, wrapping the bandage gauze around it as he wound it around Scotts body, desperate to stop the bleeding. "Cheryl was right" Scotty choked as Ash moved to his arms. "We're all gonna die here". "No!" Ash shouted, surprised at his own ferocity. "We're not gonna die!" Scotty choked. "Ash…".

"We're not gonna die!" he yelled, trying to keep Scotty conscious. "We're not gonna die here!" He finished Scotty's medical work and knelt down, looking him in the eye. "Now listen to me Scotty, is there another way?" Scotty lolled. "Is there another way around the gorge?" Scotty didn't answer, he looked like he was crying. "Scotty!" Ash yelled to his friend. "For god's sake listen to me! Scott!" He shook Scott like a rag doll, finally slapping him in frustration. "Ash…" Scotty finally said. "I don't wanna die. You aren't gonna leave me Ash?" he reached out a trembling hand and grabbed Ashley's shoulder. "Are you?"

"I don't wanna die!" Cheryl howled in a mocking voice from the cellar. "You aren't gonna leave me? Are ya Ash?" She broke into another fit of cackling, horrible laughter. "Scotty!" Ash screamed over the laughter of his sister. "For god's sake! Listen to me! Think! Is there a way around the bridge?"

Scotty gasped. "There's a way." He finally said. "A trail…but, the trees Ash. They know. Don't you see Ash? They're alive!" Both Cheryl and Linda burst into laughter at this. Cackling like witches. Scotty groaned and slumped down on the sofa, his breathing ragged. "Shut up Linda!" Ash screamed at his lover. He ran over to her as she stared at him, laughing like a schoolgirl. "Shut up!" he screamed, striking her across the face in fury as all the fear and frustration he had been building up inside of him gushed out. She kept on laughing, unfazed by the blow. He struck her again, then a third time. She just sat there and took it. Either she couldn't feel the strikes, or she just didn't care. Ash didn't know what to do. This was Linda for god's sake. She had always been so nice, so sweet. Now he felt like he wanted to kill her. She was sitting there, laughing at his dying friend. Why? Why did she have to be taken? Everything was coming down around him.

"Kill her.." Scotty muttered, barely conscious. "Ash! Kill her!" Cheryl smiled. "Kill her if you can! Lover boy!" she growled in her terrible voice. He had to. Shaking, he grabbed the shotgun from the mantle. Raising the weapon to his shoulder, Ashley J. Williams pointed it at Linda, the only woman he had ever loved. "God forgive me." He whispered as his finger tightened on the trigger.

Ash picks up the boomstick. And so it begins. Quick Status check: Ash is pointing a gun at a possessed Linda, Scotty is little more than a bloodied mess, Cheryl is nothing but a bloodied mess and six feet under and Cheryl is still providing running commentary from the cellar. This qualifies as a bad situation. A little back-story for Ash and in case you don't know, Scotty also ran afoul of the trees and yes, they raped him. Why do you think he's so worked up? Scotty has gone from jaunty hero to forest bitch pretty quickly. Next chapter up soon as possible!

Your handsome author.

Apollomasque


	12. Chapter 12: The Perfect Girl

The Perfect Girl

Chapter 12

The Perfect Girl

Ash still couldn't believe he was doing this. He was pointing a gun at Linda. Linda, the one who he loved, the one who understood him, the one who always cheered him up. Now he had every intention of blowing her away. Every sound in the room seemed amplified. Scotty's labored breathing, Cheryl's laughter, the cock of the shotgun, the rattling of the chains on the trapdoor, the crackling of the fire, Linda sobbing.

Sobbing?

Ash realized that he had been staring intently at the gun barrels this entire time, not daring to look into her eyes. He did.

Linda stared back at him through two perfect, clear green eyes. The same eyes he had first fallen in love with, those eyes would never lie to him. Tears were streaming from those beautiful eyes.

"Ash" she said, trembling. Ashley's body went limp; he dropped the shotgun with a thud. How could he ever have thought of firing that thing at her? "Help me, please!" Linda stood up cautiously, teetering slightly before collapsing into Ash's arms. "Ash" her face was buried in his chest. "Don't let them take me again!" Ash had to say something, this felt like a dream. "I-I won't" he finally said, trying not to cry himself. "I won't let them, I promise" he said more forcefully, like he was trying to expel the demons with his voice.

"Ashley" another voice said. It was Cheryl's. Cheryl was talking in a normal voice, from the cellar. "Ashley help me!" She was alright. Relief flooded through Ash's mind. She was alright, his sister was okay. He walked over to the trap door. "Let me out of here" Cheryl said in an even voice "Unlock the chains and let me out" That was his sister, always tried to stay composed. "I'm alright now, let me out" Ash knelt down, looking for the key for the lock. "I'm alright now Ashley, I'm alright" He grabbed the key to the lock from a desk table, near Scotty's unconscious body. Silence crept out from the cracks of the cellar door. "Cheryl?" Ash queried, peering through the door crack into the darkness of the cellar.

Suddenly the section of flooring not two inches from his head exploded as Cheryl thrusted her rotting scabby hands through the wood. One hand grabbed Ash by his neck. Everything turned from calm to horrifying in less than a second. "I'm alright Ash!" Cheryl shrieked mockingly in her distorted, demonic voice. "It's your sister Ash! Unlock the chain!" Ash tore himself free and flung himself across the room. If he had unlocked that door… "Why" he shouted in a mixture of fear and anger. "Why are you torturing me like this?!" The reality of this event flooded into Ashley's mind and down his spine like ice water. If Cheryl could pretend to be okay… His worst thoughts were confirmed when he felt a chillingly familiar cackle from the far corner of the room. Linda was once again sitting on the floor, legs jutted out in front of her, staring at him with her white, unblinking eyes. She started to sing in an eerie, mocking tune.

_We're gonna get you_

_We're gonna get you_

_Not another peep_

_Time to go to sleep_

"Shut up!" Ash roared in fury. He felt everything collapsing around him. Blood was pumping through his ears, something was pressing on his temples. He had to do something before his skull cracked like an egg under the pressure, but he couldn't bring himself to shoot Linda.

He needed to get out of here. No, he needed to get _Linda _out of here. He needed room to think and he couldn't do that with his possessed girlfriend breathing down his neck. He grabbed her legs and began to walk backwards towards the front door, dragging her behind him.

Ash elbowed open the door to the cabin and continued to stagger backwards, Linda trailing after him, giggling like a girl on the swings.

He dragged her to a patch damp leaves and dropped her there, bolting back to the cabin as Linda writhed on the ground like a snake. He took one final, regretful look back at her before slamming the door and bolting all three locks shut.

I know, I know. Pretty meager chapter after such a long absence. But be nice to me, my computer melted down and I lost all my files. So here you go. Enjoy the chapter.


	13. Chapter 13: Death and The Maidens

Chapter 13

Death and the Maidens

Ash sat on a chair next to Scotty, holding a glass of the least alcoholic beverage he could find, peach juice. "Here" he said, lifting the glass to Scotty's lips, "Here". Scotty did not open his eyes or shift his body, only parting his lips slightly to permit the liquid admittance down his throat. Ash glanced at the clock on the wall; it was around 4:45. He sighed; it wasn't to long until dawn. "In an hour or two, the sun will be up, then we can all get out of here together." Ash said weakly, trying to comfort Scotty.

Weariness of the night was taking its toll, Ash had only slept lightly throughout the night, to often woken by the wind, the creaking of branches or the occasional burst of demonic laughter from Cheryl. He thought of everyone. Maybe the sun would help, maybe it could do something for the girls, maybe it could drive out the forces that controlled them. Yeah, sure it would.

"You, me, Linda, Shelly-" He paused, remembering the sound of the axe on the wooden floor, envisioning the spray of blood. "No, not Shelly" Ash felt bile rise in is throat as he remembered burying her grisly remains. "She-" He caught himself, looking up a Scotty. "We'll all be going home together, wouldn't you like to go home?" Scotty didn't answer. Scotty wasn't swallowing, juice was dribbling down his chin. Scotty didn't move or breathe. Ash dropped the glass, only vaguely hearing it shatter on the floor. "Scott?" he said, his voice breaking.

He knelt by the couch for a full minute, trying to find the will and courage to stand up. It wasn't there. He was the only one. Everyone was gone. Everything had deserted him. His friends, his sister, his dry wit. Everything.

A cackling from outside caused Ashley to raise his head, eyes drifting across the room. He slowly got to his feet and walked over to one of the windows by the front door. Ash scanned the front yard, trying to pick up a trace of Linda. All he could see was some trees, his car and dark fog. Maybe Linda had disappeared into the woods, or maybe she had found a way back inside the cabin and was standing right beside him, clutching the Candarian dagger.

It turned out the latter was true.

Linda shrieked as she lunged at Ash, who barely had enough time to react before she lashed at him with the dagger, cutting a gash across Ashley's right arm. Ash backpedaled, clutching the wound in pain as Linda advanced closer, licking the bloodied knife. She lunged again with a screech of bloodlust. Ash managed to catch Linda's dagger hand by the wrist, temporarily prolonging his life. Linda responding by hurling him across the room. Ash fell against the couch, knocking Scotty's body off of it. Linda rushed at him; Ash was still lying prone on his back. He kicked her in the torso with both feet, sending Linda back against the wall. She writhed there as Ash struggled to his feet. He grabbed her arms, struggling as the two lurched around the room like ballroom dancers. Ash stepped towards the trap door and Cheryls hand pounced out like a waiting snake, grabbing his ankle. Ash glanced behind and in front of him. Linda was trying to stab him; Cheryl was trying to drag him into the cellar. The two women in his life were both trying to kill him.

Ash wrenched his foot free from Cheryls grasp as Linda grabbed his face. She gouged at his eyes, trying to crush them like berries. Ash wrestled with Linda's dagger hand, pushing it behind her. Linda never had been very muscular. He bent her arm behind her back, hoping to eliminate the threat of the dagger. Linda stepped backwards, tripping over Scotty's corpse. She fell, the dagger stabbing through her back and emerging out of her abdomen in a spray of blood. She shrieked in pain, blood and white pus spraying from her mouth as her head lolled back and forth. Cheryl screamed in protest as Linda's body finally lay still.

Ashley stood in the middle of the cabin as the adrenalin running through his veins dissipated, finally allowing him to take in the scene. Cheryl had crept back into the darkness of the cellar, Linda lay with a dagger through her stomach, draped over Scotty's body. Somewhere in his mind, Ash registered that he would need to do something about the body. Shelly had been stabbed in the back too, but she hadn't been down for the count. "_Bodily Dismemberment"…_ the words of Knowby's tape rung through Ash's head and he realized what he had to do. He moved robotically, as if in a dream. Slowly bending down and grabbing Linda by her legs and slowly dragging her out the door.

Ash only vaguely realized taking the chain off of the door to the work shed, barely recalled hefting Linda's body onto the table and strapping her down with chains and a few bungee cords. He drew the curtain back from a shelf and found what he was looking for.

The chainsaw.

He lifted it from its hook, feeling the weight. It was a surprisingly light model, he could probably hold it with one hand if he wanted. Ash looked at the red plastic casing, searching for the switch. He flicked it into the on position and pulled the ripcord, revving it to life. The smell of gasoline, the kick of the chain and the roar of the engine all snapped him into focus. He looked at the motorized instrument of death in his hands. The acrid smoke from the chainsaw was clouding his vision, blurring his thoughts again. He looked at Linda. She seemed so peaceful, so quiet. _No, _his center told him, _Cheryl looked peaceful. Shelly looked peaceful. It's an act. You need to kill her. You need to kill it._ I can't. Ash realized that he could not, in all intentions, kill the woman he loved with a chainsaw as she lay strapped to a table. _Linda is dead._ Ash stared at the necklace around her throat, the necklace that symbolized so much. Everything about her was embodied in it. HE couldn't do it. Linda is dead. Then I'll bury her. It made sense.

He flicked the power switch, letting the metal teeth spin down. He tossed the ugly weight into a corner. Tears started to cloud his vision. He collapsed finally. Everything was rushing into him. It was like a flood gate had opened in his mind and all the pain and remorse of the night was pouring through. Scotty was dead, Shelly was dead, Cheryl was a monster and Linda was dead. Ash buried his face in his hands, openly sobbing.

"Oh, Linda" He gasped. He had to do something. This was the woman he loved and he was going to give her a proper burial. Wordlessly, Ashley undid the bonds, lifted Linda in his arms and carried her out the door into the damp, drizzling night.

Authors notes:

Dear God!!! That took a long time. Well, enjoy the nice, long chapter. The next one will be up soon. I hope.

This is just sort of emotional filler in the movie. The kind that makes three people go "Aaawwww" and everyone else angrily ask were all the blood went.


	14. Chapter 14: No Rest For The Wicked

**Chapter 14**

**No Rest For The Wicked**

The cold wind stung Ashley's face as he stepped out into the damp night air. Each step seemed heavier, carrying Linda's dead weight wasn't helping and every part of his body ached. On the whole, he wasn't doing all that hot.

Ash chose a mound of loose soil on a hill overlooking the cabin. He lay down Linda's body and grabbed a spade from the work shed. Upon returning, Linda was still lying as still as before. Ash thrust the blade of the shovel into the earth and started to dig.

Meanwhile the current sole resident of the cabin, Cheryl, was growing impatient. She had been locked down in the cellar for to long and was feeling ready to leave. She was pulling the door up and down, up and down, rattling its hinges to the point of snapping. Very gradually, A link in the chain keeping her confined in the root cellar began to give under the strain. A weak link was all it would take. Very slowly it began to come apart.

Ash was almost done with the grave. It was shallow, only two or three feet deep, but a grave nonetheless. Besides, he didn't want to spend anymore time out in the open than he had to. Then he paused. It felt as someone was standing behind him, watching him. The hairs on the back of his neck tickled slightly. He turned slowly, clutching the shovel. There was nothing, nothing save Linda's limp form. He looked at her body. She was dead, she had to be. Ash turned away and continued to dig.

Cheryl pounded away at the door, slavering like a wild animal. The weak link finally snapped and the door flew open. Cheryl howled in triumph. She was free.

Ash felt it again, a strange prickling at the back of his neck. Something was toying with him. He whipped around again, still finding nothing out of the ordinary, aside from the body of his dead girlfriend. Ashley dropped the shovel. It was time to lay Linda to rest. He slowly walked over, like there were lead weights in his shoes. He choked back a sob as he lifted Linda up and carried her towards the grave. It was odd, how a simple hole in the ground could inspire so much sadness and grief. Ash slowly lay Linda in the hole, kissed her frozen lips and climbed out. He sat there, his legs dangling over the lip of the hole for a few seconds, trying to catch his breath. Slowly he stood and once more grabbed the shovel, slowly filling in the grave and burying Linda under shovelful after shovelful of dirt and mud.

The task was finally done. He stood over the filled in grave, staring at the loose mound of earth and makeshift cross made from two wooden planks lashed together he had made. This was all there was to mark Linda's final resting place. He patted down the earth with the shovel and turned to leave. Ash paused. Maybe he should say something. He stood over the grave, trying to find words, but none came to him. Ash looked down and something caught his eye. It was Linda's necklace. Trembling, he reached down and picked it up. The relevance of this was lost on him when Linda's hand burst from the soil and wrapped around his wrist.

Ash screamed as Linda rose from the soil, howling like a cat. Blasting the dirt out of the hole, she clutched at Ashley's wrist until he managed to tear it free. Ash screamed again and turned to run, but Linda wrapped a hand around his left calf and clawed at it with her other hand, tearing long gashes in his pants and the skin beneath. Blood flowed freely as Ash kicked himself loose, howling in pain as he struck the ground. Linda was right behind him. Ash grabbed a large, hefty branch from the ground and swung it like a baseball bat. It connected, sending Linda stumbling back. Ash scrambled to his feet, ignoring the pain in his lower leg and swung the branch again, and again, each blow striking her across the face. She cackled as Ash thrust the wooden club at her. Linda caught it, starting a game of tug-of-war between the two. Ash gripped the branch, pulling with all his might until Linda suddenly let go. The sudden release caused Ash to drop the branch and stumble backwards, landing in next to the shovel. Linda started to lurch towards him. _"_Come to me" she screeched and leaped through the air at him as Ash gripped the shovel by the handle. At that point the adrenaline coursing through Ashley's body hit some primitive gland in his brain and he lost all conscious awareness of what was happening. He became a more primitive version of himself, reacting purely on impulse like his Cro-Magnon forefathers. Cro-Magnon Ash let out a howling grunt that twentieth century Ash had never heard before but could easily be translated as "get me the hell out of here". Without another thought, Ash swung the shovel through the air like a sword, with enough force to cleave clean through the skin muscle and bone of someone's neck, which is exactly what it did.

Linda's twitching body collapsed on top of Ash's like a lover, while her still grinning head rolled down the embankment and into darkness. Ash shoved Linda's remains off of himself, letting her collapse back into the recently vacated grave. He hauled himself to his feet, wincing as pain shot through his wounded calf. With a final pang of regret, Ash shoveled the last of the soil over Linda's finally still body. He wasn't sure he had it in him to go find the head right now. Ash started back to the relative safety of the cabin at a quick, limping gait.

Ash half walked, half collapsed through the door of the cabin, panting heavily and leaving a trail of blood behind him as he dragged his injured leg across the floor. It took him a moment to realize that Cheryl was being unusually quiet. She would have probably greeted him with a taunting quote, a demonic howl or at least a rude gesture. She was silent. Ash glanced over at her makeshift prison and the bottom fell out of his stomach when he saw that the cellar door had been thrown open. Cheryl was gone. Ash stood over the open hole, staring into the darkness. Was Cheryl still down there? Was she waiting for him to go down and check? Maybe she was hiding somewhere else in the house, waiting to jump out at him like a day-glo skeleton in a kiddie ghost ride. A creaking drew his attention away from the cellar and towards the bedrooms. Ash slammed the trap door shut and stared down the foreboding hallway. He had a hard time moving. The door leading to the sitting room swung open ominously. Ash tried to make himself relax. It was probably just the wind. _Yeah right. _Ash slowly made his way towards the open room, then, thinking twice, he reached down and picked the shotgun up off of the floor. Holding it in front of him like a British royal guard, he warily advanced into the room, ready to aim and fire at a moments notice. A rapping was emanating from the window. Like someone was tapping on the glass in a robotic, constant fashion. The drapes were drawn, obscuring the outside. Ash crept closer to the window, gripping the gun tighter as he pointed it at the drapes. Ash realized a second too late that the window he was standing right next to was wide open. Cheryl had been crouched under the window sill, ready to leap out at the right moment, which is what she did, springing up and grabbing the barrels of the shotgun, trying to wrench it out of his hands. Ash yelled in horror and shock, trying to bat Cheryl off. He finally twisted free, backing away from the window, panic stricken. Cheryl turned from the window and fled towards the forest. Before she reached the border of trees, Ash aimed briefly and fired, blowing open her left shoulder in an explosion of blood and shrapnel. Cheryl turned in the darkness, snarled at Ashley and started to run towards the front of the cabin, towards the front door. _The front door that you left open, _Ash told himself as he fastened the shutters of the open window closed and bolted across the cabin, throwing his weight on the door. Wouldn't you know it, the damn thing was jammed. Ash pounded at the door, trying to force it closed. The door inched forward at a painfully slow rate. The bottom was caught on something or other. Cheryl smashed her way through a dead shrubbery, baying like a wolf. Ash yelled in frustration and anger as the door refused to close, like a horrible force was trying to hold it open, which, for all Ash knew, was exactly what was going on. It was almost closed when Cheryl reached the front door. A single, rotting hand snaked through the crack, her fingers trying to pry it back open. Panic stricken, Ashley slammed the butt of the shotgun against Cheryl's fingers, breaking them like spaghetti. Cheryl roared in anger and pain. Ash struck again, grinding her hand into the threshold until Cheryl withdrew the shattered digits.

Ash leaned against the front door, panting heavily. "_Back door" _the part of him that got Ashley this far said ominously. Ash bolted from his prone position, sprinting the length of the cabin as fast as his injured leg would carry him. Ash collapsed against the open back door, which mercifully slammed shut with a single shove. Ash firmly locked it, desperate to catch his breath for one damn second. "_Okay" _his center told him. _"You didn't listen to me about Linda and look where that got you. A busted leg and a head full of traumatizing images. I'm gonna get you out of this, but you gotta do what I say. Okay, quick roll call: Cheryl? Wounded and outside. Scotty? Dead, hopefully he'll stay that way. Linda? Probably down for good. Shelly? In the ground. You? Not as screwed as they want you to be. You've got shelter, you've got weapons, you even have food. Just hold out for another one or two hours and the sun will be up, then you can get out of here. Speaking of weapons, how's the shotgun?" _"Got one round" Ash found himself muttering. "_Alright, so what do you need?" "_Shells" Ash said more firmly, he remembered seeing a box of them in the basement, near where they found the book. Ash looked over at said book, lying on the desk in the sitting room. Hard to believe this was all because of it.

Ash peered down into the cellar. The staircase extended into the darkness. He wondered if he really should go down there, who knows what horrible things could be down there? Then again, after he ran out of ammunition, the only purpose the shotgun could serve would be as a club. Ash took a deep breath and started to descend into the darkness.

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­Authors notes: Well, Ol, Ashley's finally coming out of his shell! At least the loudest voice in his head is a helpful one. Sorry about the wait, but I've dedicated to making longer chapters. They'll be further between, but they'll definitely have more meat on 'em. See y'all soon.


	15. Chapter 15: Loosing Control

**Chapter 15**

**Loosing Control**

Ash made his way down the steps, every time his left foot hit the tread, a new kind of pain was sent shooting up his leg, like the worlds biggest splinter. Ash didn't take a loose plank into consideration, which gave way under his foot, he slipped and the whole world turned sideways as he slid down to the earthy basement floor, thudding off of each and every step. Ashley opened his eyes, he seriously considered just lying there for a while. It just wasn't fair, he had to kill his friends, got beaten and bloodied on no less than six separate occasions and now he just fell down the goddamn, stupid ass, mother-fucking stairs.

"_Get up" _Ash sighed, whoever this voice was, he was always right. Ashley slowly climbed to his feet and took in the surrounding. During her stay in the cellar, Cheryl had really taken the place apart. Shelves and boxes had been turned over, the sheets covering various objects had been torn away, revealing more junk debris that had piled up down there over the decades. Ash noted the dripping pipe from his last visit, leaking water from a cloth tied around the supposed break. He paused, that wasn't water leaking from the pipe it was…blood. The cloth resembled more of a bandage, tied around a wounded arm, blood slowly trickling onto the floor. The pipe started to rattle slightly, as though pressure were building. Ash took a few steps backwards, this was definitely creeping him out. Without warning, the metal tube broke, splitting open and pouring it's crimson contents all over Ashley. Then things _really _went straight to hell. Blood seemed to pour from everywhere. It flowed from between the stones inlaid in the wall, oozed out of the electric outlets, trickled from the light bulb socket and generally seemed to bleed out of everything. Ash stumbled out of the grisly downpour and watched with horror and confusion as the Vectrola Record Player at one corner of the room cranked itself to life, rasping out an ancient, cheery tune that seemed to belong in a Buster Keaton film. It was far out of place in the horrific environment. The projector on the other side of the room also sparked to life, shining a bright square of light against the far wall, blinding Ash. He stumbled blearily, blinking spots from his vision as blood dripped onto the lens, slowly painting the square red. Ash backed through the door to the room with the table and shells. A ghostly whisper drifted around the room. "We're gonna get youuuu". "Shut up Linda!" Ash yelled. "Ash…I…don't wanna die" Scotty panted. "Shut up!" Ash grabbed the box of shells and quickly reloaded the shotgun, fumbling the rest of the little red tubes into his various pockets. The voices started to overlap one another. "Don't leave me!" "Ash, so sweet of you" "The act of…bodily dismemberment" "Hit her…hit IT!" "I'll always love you Ashley". Ash finally cocked the gun, the metal click cleared his thoughts, snapping everything back into focus. Ash darted back into the chaos filling the main room. Sparks started to fly from the now blood-drenched projector. Something caught on fire as the light bulb illuminating the sordid scene blew, showering broken glass around the room. The record player was blaring out that stupid ragtime music at high volume. The projector finally exploded in a shower of sparks and tiny metal components and the music ground to a halt. Ash stood there in the darkness of the cellar taking in what just happened. Blood was still dripping out of the busted pipe as he made his way over to the stairs and slowly, shotgun gripped tightly, walked back up into the cabin.

Ash kicked the trapdoor shut, promising not to go back there unless absolutely necessary.

The clock on the wall near the cellar started to chime, 5:00, less than an hour before sunrise. He checked the clock to make sure it was right, only to be horrified at the sight of the hands spinning like the blades of a fan, fast enough to be a blur, it was almost hypnotic. The pendulum thrashed back and forth maniacally, at a speed and force that threatened to tear the entire thing apart. He backed away as the thing seemed to slow down, finally stopping back at five o'clock. Ash backed away from the infernal chronometer until he heard a sound behind him. Sort of a cracking, snapping noise, like someone stepping on a large twig, or cracking a bone in half, or jarring a door bolt out of it's lock. He whipped around, gun at the ready. Nothing.

_Stay calm, It's just your nerves. You're armed and you're scared. When animals are scared, they release adrenaline, keeps them alert. Keep you're head on a swivel and don't let them sneak up on you._

I am scared, I'm damn terrified. Ash stepped forward into the middle of the room. He could hear the blood pumping in his ears again. He felt as though someone was hanging him upside-down as his stomach clenched and unclenched. It suddenly felt as though something heavy and damp was sitting on his chest. Ash blinked the sweat from his eyes as his gaze flitted around the room like a moth. _So many open windows, so many dark corners and that damned front door never did close right. The bedrooms are better fortified, less openings, get in there, find a chair, face the door and shoot anything that comes through. _Okay.

The door to the darkened bedroom swung open noiselessly. A cold chill ran down Ashley's spine. There was something in the room. He couldn't see it, but it was there, he could feel it in his soul. The ungodly thing lunged at him, flying through the air at the figure outlined by the rectangle of light. Ash barely had enough time to slam the door shut before the thing overtook him. But slam it shut he did, his back to the door, bracing for an impact that didn't come. As though the thing had evaporated before reaching him, after realizing he had shut the door. Now what? The shutters of every window started to open and close, smashing shut and hurling themselves open, as though possessed by a terrible hurricane. Ash ran to the nearest pair, staring at them as they threatened to shatter the glass they covered. With the windows broken, he would be even more exposed. Ash felt like yelling, so he did. The blood was pumping through his body harder, faster, his heartbeat thudding away in his ears. Suddenly a horrible, blood-drenched, filthy apparition leapt into focus at his right. Ash wheeled around, raising the shotgun, ready to fire. He only found himself staring at his own reflection. The bloody figure was him, it appeared when he walked in front of the mirror. He was jumping at his own shadows. _Is that really me? _He looked terrible, like something that had gone through a meat grinder. He brushed a few strands of hair from his eyes and reached out to touch the mirror. It was just a reflection, just a piece of glass. Except his hand didn't stop at the glass. Ashley's fingers passed through the surface of the mirror as its surface rippled like water. Things were coming completely undone. Ash jerked his hand out of the still shimmering pool, staring at his wet fingers. Screaming time again.

A dark shadow flitted by the window to his left, letting off an unearthly groan. Ash simply raised the shotgun and fired. This act of horrified impulse achieved nothing but a blown out window. He had only hit the pane of glass. Ash backed away from the window, panting heavily, his whole body shivering. He leaned up against the front door, desperate for a moment of respite. Wood creaked, a slight gust of wind and silence.

_Shotgun… _Ash made a sound that meant something along the lines of "Right, of course" and hastily reloaded. Flattened against the front door, with no distractions to occupy his head, Ash started thinking of all the terrible things that could happen to him before the night was out. "C'mon, C'mon" he whispered to himself. "Don't do this to yourself, stay focused" All five of his senses were alert, prepared, the slightest kind of movement causing him to flinching, doubling over at the smallest creak. Hell, even something that _smelled_ funny would put him on edge. Ashley's eyes rolled hastily his skull, his pupils bouncing around like ping-pong balls. _Calm down, don't lose it now. _"Easy for you to say, you're just a voice" _I'm you, the part of you that won't let us go down without a fight. Now just calm down. _Ash suddenly realized this entire time he had been arguing with a voice in his head. Hearing voices was never a good sign.

Ash's heightened senses picked something else up. A small something pressed against his hip, something in his pocket he had all but forgotten about. Linda's necklace. Ash pulled it out slowly, feeling pricks of moisture behind his eyes. He had always promised to keep her safe, but now she was buried in the middle of the woods, missing her head. "Linda" he muttered, Oh god Linda, I'm so sorry. Is this my fault? Did I do this?

The clock at the other end of the room suddenly stopped ticking. Ashley immediately turned, desperately trying to swallow with a dried out mouth. Silence, absolute and total. Great, what next?

What came next was Cheryl, unexpectedly and unpleasantly, thrusting both of her rotting arms through the wooden door, grappling with her brothers shoulders and face, her brother yelling in horror in panic at the sudden turn of events. "Join ussss!" Cheryl shrieked, baying like a wolf. Her hands wrapping around his throat. Ash managed to twist free, landing on the floor on his stomach. He rolled over as Cheryl withdrew her hands from the two holes punched in the door and peered through one of the openings. Ash brought the gun to his shoulder and, still on his back, fired at her through the aperture. The impact forced Cheryl's desiccated form off her feet, blowing most of the left side of her face off. She writhed on the ground like a snake, blood pouring from her mouth and cheek as she scuttled on all fours back into the fog. Ash ran to the door, looking out through the other hole to make sure she was gone. Unsatisfied, he grabbed a small foot locker to his right and pushed in front of the door as a makeshift barricade. _Alright, we're almost through. I told you we'd make it._

Behind him, unseen, Scotty's form stirred, slowly sitting up, his eyes fluttering open to reveal to blank, milky white pools…

To Be Concluded!....I hope.


	16. Chapter 16: Dawn of the Dead

**Chapter 16**

**Dawn of the Dead**

Having steely, rotting hands grab you by the shoulders, hands that belong to your recently deceased best friend no less, should have been more of a horrible surprise to Ash. Then again, with all he had been through, it was more of an unpleasant turn of events. Ash managed to swivel around in Scotty's grasp, staring into his dead eyes and sallow, yellowing skin. Scotty gave an angry moan which probably could be translated as something extremely rude or discomforting. Ash gripped the shotgun, attempting to force the barrel under Scott's chin. Scotty obviously planned otherwise and used his unnatural, superior strength to wrestle the gun from Ashley's hands, throwing it across the room. Violent pounding at the front door, accompanied by high, screeching cries told Ash that Cheryl was back. Ash managed pull free of Scott's grasp, dashing for the shotgun at the other end of the living room. He grabbed one of the last pieces of furniture that hadn't been demolished, a nightstand, and hurled it at Scott in attempt to slow him down. Unbeknownst to all three, on that table was resting a book. The book that had started this whole mess, a book bound in flesh and inked in blood. When the stand bounced off of Scotty, the book tumbled off, landing next to the still burning fireplace.

Ash smashed a windowsill potted plant of azaleas over Scotty's head. Linda would have been devastated, she loved azaleas. Tiring of the pointless beatings, Scotty grabbed Ash by the throat, lifting him up against the wall. Cheryl was still pounding at the door, slowly but surely forcing the barricaded entrance open. Ash was starting black out. Without that oh-so-precious oxygen, he was moments away from unconsciousness. Blackness was eating at the corners of his vision. Time for a desperation maneuver Cheryl had learned at one of her self-defense classes. Wordlessly, he grabbed Scotty's head with both his hands, his thumbs pressing against Scott's eyes. Ash kept on pressing as he felt Scott's eyeballs start to give. He squeezed harder, feeling both eyeballs pop like overripe berries between someone's teeth. Scotty howled in genuine agony as blood flowed from his destroyed eyes, but still did not relinquish his grip. Ash scanned his bandage-clad body, looking for a weak point. It came in the form of the giant splinter he had been so careful to avoid when patching him up. Ash gripped, it, pulling with all the strength he had left. It popped out like a cork, more blood pouring from the hole left in it's wake. Scotty's grip finally weakened as he collapsed to the ground, Ash wrenched free, sucking in several lungfuls of air, his oxygen deprived mind clearing as the pounding headache receded.

Ash looked down at Scott's still spasming form and noticed that the top right part of his body seemed to be…burning. There was no fire, but heat was radiating off of him and smoke was pouring off his arm, shoulder and torso. Ash scanned the room, looking for what might have caused this. His eyes fell on The Necronomicon, partially lying next to the fire, it to had its top right corner smoking, embers resting on its leathery hide. _Of course, the book! You have to burn the book! They're bound to the book, so if it burns, they do! _Ashley's train of thought was interrupted by Cheryl, having forced the front door open, writhing inside, shrieking as usual and smoldering the same as Scott. She grabbed Ash by his shoulders, hurling him to the ground, then walking out of his line of vision. Where was she going? _Never mind that! Get the book! Throw it into the fire! _Ash crawled cross the floor, reaching for it. Then Scotty reached for him, wrapping his cold finger around Ashley's ankle, holding him down, just a few inches short of the book. "Fuck off!" Ash yelled, kicking at Scotty. Apparently, Cheryl had left to retrieve a weapon, the fire poker. She gripped it tightly, advancing on Ash's prone form. He had one chance. Reaching into his pocket, Ashley withdrew Linda's necklace. Maybe he could use it to reach those last few inches, like a makeshift grappling hook. _That's the stupidest idea I've ever heard. _But was better than nothing. Gripping one end of the chain, Ash tossed the pendant forward, but it fell short, he tried again, but it landed too far to the right. Cheryl raised the poker over her head, striking down with considerable force against her brothers back. Ash cried out in pain as one would, but stared forward, determined to finish this. One way or another, it would end here. She struck again, then a third time. Ash howled as Scott attempted to pull him closer, trying to take a bite out of his leg. Ash threw the necklace one last time, any longer and he'd be out of range.

It finally caught, snagged against a jagged fold of flesh near the mouth of the book's face. Ash was tugged by Scotty again, pulling him along the floor, the necklace and the book in tow. Ash pulled the necklace towards him, grabbing the book at last. He looked at Scotty, his closest friend, then at Cheryl, his beloved baby sister. Could he really do this to them?

Then he saw what they had become. Not themselves, but just soulless puppets. That which made them who they were was long gone, replaced by nothing but purest evil. "Burn in hell" he muttered through gritted teeth and threw the accursed book into the flames.

The effect was almost instantaneous. Cheryl and Scott both froze, stiff as boards. Cheryl was still in mid swing as she stiffened up. A high-pitched wail, like a wounded cat emanated deep from within them. Smoke poured from their smoldering bodies as Cheryl's fingers loosed and dropped the poker, which hit the ground with a thud, the end stabbing into the wooden floor inches from Ashley's head. The Necronomicon itself began to screech and moan, writhing in the flames like a living thing, it's eyes rolling the sockets and it's mouth spewing out words silently. Cheryl and Scotty's bodies abruptly burst into flames, flesh and hair burning off of them as they rapidly decomposed in the inferno. Ash kicked free of Scotty's hands as the fire spread up his arms. They began to moan as the skin was seared off of Cheryl's face, revealing a bluish-white skull underneath, white eyes still rolling in their sockets. Ash felt he didn't have the strength to get up off of the floor. Scotty's jaw dropped off as the flames coating both of them died down and extinguished, leaving two near skeletal forms covered in blood, melting flesh and various other ungodly substances. There was silence. Ash slowly glanced back at Scotty. His flayed corpse was stirring slightly, as though there was a swarm of bugs in his shirt. A mushy, foul smelling substance started to ooze from his sleeves. Cheryl's head lolled slightly. _Is it over? _Apparently it wasn't as, with out warning, two large, unpleasant looking arms burst out of Scotty's back, two also erupted from Cheryl's abdomen, one on her front, one on the back. Their bodies flailed, as the arms, skeletal, but with powerful strands of muscle and flesh still clinging to them, thrashed wildly at the air, as if they were trying to grab onto something. _Those arms belong to whatever is inside of them. The demons that possessed them are dying with the bodies and now they're trying to escape. _Ash stared in horror, this knowledge sinking in. The horrible creatures seemedto be blackening and shriveling, like they too were burning. The arms went limp, finally collapsing into ash on the floor. Cheryl's body seemed to explode in different areas, her knee, neck, shoulder and torso all let off snapping sounds as more blood sprayed from the areas in question. Cheryl groaned as she opened her toothy maw and fell forward, right next to Ash. Her head burst open like a coconut when it hit the ground, spraying him in the face with one last gobbet of blood, giving Ash the chance let off one more "Aaaah! Dear god!" as the two finally lay still, what was left of their bodies collapsing and rotting into liquid, which simply fizzled away until there was nothing left but a few scraps of clothing. A single, deep voice ghosted away on the wind. "Join ussss…Join ussss…Join usss…"

Ash lay there a while longer, not moving or thinking much, just resting. He had definitely earned it. He quietly got up. His gaze flitted around the destroyed cabin. He noticed the Necronomicon lying next to the fire, as if it had been spit out of the fire. It was completely unscathed, not burnt in any way. He would deal with it later. Ash turned to the clock on the wall, ticking away as if nothing was wrong. He looked down at the necklace in his blood stained hand. Linda's necklace. It had saved his life, he would always keep it close to him. He walked to the front door, opening it wide and staring out at the foggy twilight. Dawn was just moments away. _Told you we'd make it._ The voice in his head gloated, then sank away back into his subconscious. It was finally through. He had survived the grueling terror.

But the thing in the woods would have none of it. This blue-garbed mortal had shown defiance that the demons of The Necronomicon had never seen before. This pitiful insect's sheer refusal to die had done something that they thought no human ever could. He had pissed them off. The lone spirit left out in the woods didn't even care that the sun was almost risen; it had a single thought in its head. Kill the mortal and take his soul. It sped forward, roaring with all the wind behind it, tearing through the woods at break-neck speed, if it had a neck. It rounded past tree's, flinging the back door open and smashing right through the next one behind it, tearing through the cabin with sheer bloodlust fueling it, blinded by it's fury. It burst through the front door, making a bee line straight for him.

Ash paused. Something wasn't right. He could sense it in the back of his head. He hardly noticed that specific something until it was right on top of him. He only managed a scream as the horrific thing took him full in the face.

End of Part 1.

Authors Notes: Yeah I know, pretty crappy ending, but what do you want from me? I would call two chapters in two days pretty damn impressive. Anyway, here I am, at the end of part one. I would like to thank everyone for sticking with me this long. At this milestone, I will take a brief sabbatical, returning in a few weeks refreshed and ready for another section. And to anyone new, you know the drill. Read, review, enjoy. To Mr. Raimi, Mr. Campbell, hell, even Mr. Tapert, if you somehow found this (maybe you googled yourself or went looking for something, I don't know) Thank you for your great contributions to cinema. Later y'all!


	17. Part 2: Chapter 17: Dead by Dawn

**The Evil Dead: A Complete Novelization**

**Part 2**

_About a month ago, anthropologist and historian Prof. Raymond Knowby made a unique discovery in the ruins of Kandar. Having journeyed there with his wife Henrietta, his daughter Annie and associate professor Ed Getley. It was in the rear corner of the castle that they stumbled upon something remarkable. The Necronomicon Ex Mortis: The Book of the Dead. While Annie and Ed remained in Europe to investigate possible leads on missing sections of the tome, Prof. Knowby and Henrietta brought the book to a cabin they had rented up in the woods, to study it undisturbed. It was here that he began the translations. The book spoke of a spiritual presence, an evil force that roamed the dark bowers of man's domain. It was through recitation of one of the books passages that these dark spirits are given license to possess the living. He then proceeded to record the phonetic translations of said passages. A few hours after those words were spoken aloud, Professor Knowby and his wife disappeared._

_Several weeks later, a group of young adults found their way to the same cabin in the woods, which one of them had scouted out earlier. It was there that they found and played the tape recorder with Knowby's findings, inadvertently playing the demon summoning passages aloud. It wasn't long before the evil Candarian spirits killed and possessed them one by one. Eventually only one, Ashley J. Williams, was left. To survive, he was forced to butcher his friends, little sister and girlfriend, all in a single night. With dawn fast approaching, Ash believed that the nightmare was finally over. But when he was greeted with an angry Candarian spirit, he realized the terror hadn't even started. _

**Chapter 17**

**Dead By Dawn**

The force of the blow lifted Ash off of his feet, sending him flying several meters, screaming the whole time. He felt as though he was being electrified, waves of hot and cold passing through his body and then, he felt as though his skin was growing tighter, becoming smaller to the point of breaking like a rubber band. Then he felt his back collide with a very sturdy tree trunk. He fell forwards, into a deep puddle left by last night's rain, then finally, blackness.

Ashley's body lay face down in the puddle, a few bubbles breaking the surface as the only sign of life, then even the bubbles stopped. Absolute quiet. Then with a demented roar, Ash broke the surface of the water, howling at the top of his lungs. He had been taken by the Candarian demons. His face had been warped, his nose and chin pointed, his eyes had been sunken back into their sockets and turned from a warm brown to soulless blank white orbs. His skin was sallow and pale, like he had been dead for a week. He roared again, staring up into the trees.

At last this fool was theirs. He had resisted for to long, had stood up against them too bravely and now, he was finally one of them. The creature formerly known as Ash twitched suddenly. Something wasn't right. It felt a warmth, all around. It looked up and gasped. It was too late. A blinding light filled the undead things vision, piercing into the blackness of it's mind. It had been to hasty, to intent on possessing this mortal that it had forgotten about dawn, about the one thing that could always vanquish it. The sun had risen.

Meanwhile, the Ash known and loved was having different problems. One cannot think, imagine or comprehend what it is like to be possessed by a Candarian demon. First think of the worst, most agonizing torture in the world. Then triple it. Then imagine it going on forever. Then make it worse. If you've done all of that, you're nowhere close. Ash was experiencing it right now. He was consumed by absolute blackness, naked and buried in burning hot coals one second, freezing ice the next, then broken glass, barbed wire and salt, sulfuric acid and a thousand other terrible things for the body to be subjected to. He wasn't alone either, he could hear wails of pain and suffering everywhere, but above that, the hissing of creatures, like insects. They were all over him, ripping at his flesh, gnawing at his hair and face, burrowing into him and clawing and stinging at his body from the inside, tearing at him, ripping off bits of his body, cutting away his arms and legs and bathing in his blood. And it would not stop. Every time his limbs were torn off, new ones would instantly grow back, his skin would heal and he would completely uninjured and unable to die. This would continue forever. This was it. He had tried, god help him he had tried, but in the end, he had gone the way of his friends and family and now, his body was being used as a puppet for those monsters. This was the end.

But fate obviously had different plans for him. Without warning, a binding light seemed to pierce the abysmal blackness. The horrible creatures around and inside of him shrieked in horror and pain, scuttling away from the beam of radiance. Ash knew he had to reach it. He summoned the strength to stand. He began to flail his arms and legs towards the light, moving faster, as if he was swimming towards it. His tormenters obviously wanted none of it and latched on to him, trying to pull him back down. He struggled, throwing them off of his body. He was almost there, almost there. They grabbed onto his legs, digging in. Ash reached to the shining circle above him, he just had to touch it. He almost had it.

His finger brushed the surface of the portal and in an instant he was sucked through. It was like he had been born again. His soul was thrust back into his body, expelling the hideous presence. His features shrunk back to normal as his skin was given back a healthy, warm glow and the white blankness was lifted from his eyes like a cloud. Ash was free.

That wasn't to say he was in very good shape. Quite on the contrary in fact, he still was in a lot of pain, but it wasn't anywhere near what he had been going through before. Every single muscle in his body was tensing and untensing. He felt as though he had aged seven years in a single night. All of his nerves were screaming at him. His skin was still too tight and his head felt like it was in a vice. Ash opened his mouth and vocalized exactly how he felt.

"AAARRRRRGGGHHHHHAAAAAGGGGGGHHHH!!!"

That would do for now. Without another word, he fell over onto his back and lapsed into unconsciousness.

Authors notes: Hey Everybody! Yeah, I know I was supposed to take a longer break, but I can't help it! I really feel like I'm on a roll right now. Besides, Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn is my favorite in the series.

Hope Everybody likes the new chapter and as always, read, review enjoy! I think that this time, me and Ash are both going to take a well deserved break.


	18. Part2: Chapter 18: No Escape

**Chapter 18**

**No Escape**

Silence crept back into the forest. There was nothing to fear in the light of day. The strange fog that had hung on the forest like a massive veil was gone, dissipated like vapour. There were no birds in the trees, no animals on the ground and for once, the trees weren't trying to kill anyone. It was absolute quiet. Not the unholy silence of the night, but a silence that is created by the absence of something, not by its presence. Ash lay still, breathing shallowly and sleeping a mercifully dreamless sleep. Time passed. The sun moved slowly across the sky and the puddle Ash lay in gradually evaporated and disappeared.

Ashley's eyes snapped open. He lay there and relished the few seconds where he forgot why he was lying on the ground in the middle of the woods. All the events of the previous night came back to him with an unpleasant jolt and he sat bolt upright. Ash warily scanned his surroundings. "It's gone" he whispered to himself. "The sun's driven it away" His car lay idle where he last left it. The sun was low in the sky. The forest had a tranquil silence, like the calm before the storm. The cabin was still standing; it's two windows resembled eyes, staring back at him. The familiar words echoed through his head "Join Ussss".

Ash had a feeling that now was a very good time to get the hell out of here. He scrambled to his feet and ran for the car, jumping into the driver's seat, jamming the key in the ignition and hit the gas, rocketing down the forest road as fast as the automobile would carry him.

There are certain times when one should not let their mind wander. Like when building a house of toothpicks, or when attempting to diffuse a bomb in a crowded mall, or when driving as fast as possible down a road away from the site of a horrible massacre towards a bridge over a deep chasm, especially when, in all the excitement, you've forgotten that the bridge has been horribly and dramatically destroyed, the rubble bent into the shape of a hand mainly for effect and shock value.

Ash had never learned this important fact of life.

He rocketed down the road, haphazardly swerving around the corners towards the exit from this nightmare. He reached over and grabbed a cloth from the passenger seat, wiping away the blood, dirt and grime caking his face as he thought over what to do next. Alright, he would get back to civilization. He would find an apartment at a motel somewhere and then… Then what? Who the hell would believe what happened? And his parents, dear god…What would he tell his parents? "Sorry Mom, sorry Dad, had to ritualistically burn Cheryl alive to save my own ass, real sorry about that, I know she was your favorite". Not likely. He could only imagine how other conversations, with other peoples family would go down. "Hi, you're Linda's family right? I'm that nice young man she's been dating. You know how I promised to get her back to you in one piece? Well…"

Ash had a feeling that things wouldn't go well at all. With luck he'd be sent to an asylum. He would be remembered as the psycho that killed his friends and sister up in a cabin in the middle of nowhere, who everyone thought was such a nice boy. Maybe he should just skip the county, change his name and get a job as a dishwasher, he could-AAAAAAAUUUUUGGHH!

Ash vocalized the last part as he slammed on the brakes, sending the car to a screeching stop right in front of a wall of twisted metal and splintered wood.

As previously stated, Ash had forgotten about the bridge.

"No" he whispered, climbing out of his car. "Oh no" He pounded the hood of the car in frustration. "No! No!" He threw his head back and howled. "Nooooo!" His cries echoed across the canyon, fading away from the tiny figure perched on the side of the deep gorge.

Okay, calm down. Just hold on. You survived last night, don't go to pieces now. Just relax. Scotty, remember Scotty? He said something about a trail around the bridge. Find that.

Ash slowed his breathing. He just had to find that trail and he could get out of here. He had to hurry though, he probably only had a few hours before…

The hairs on the back of Ashley's neck stood on end as he whipped around and stared in horror as the sun began to slip below the horizon. He had been unconscious much longer than he thought. He had woken up a few minutes before dusk. Night was creeping back over the forest as the earth's rotation drove Ash away from the sun and into darkness and with darkness, came the nightmare he thought was over.

At the very bottom of the canyon, in a deep crevasse no light could penetrate, something stirred, undulating and folding over itself like a huge, liquid snake. It writhed and let out a howl reserved for madmen and larger power tools. This roar continued as it burst out of its hiding place, clawing it's way towards the cliff face, then straight up it. On the top, Ash could sense it. Some part of his soul could feel it coming, the horrible thing that had caused him so much grief and was about to cause him so much more. It tore up the side of the cliff, still howling that unearthly cry. Ash backpedaled towards his car, leaping back behind the wheel just as the unholy presence mounted the side of the chasm, clambering on to solid ground. Ash shifted the car into reverse, slamming the gas pedal with his foot and sending the entire car lurching backwards along the road.

The Evil launched itself at him, screaming low across the ground after the front of the car. Ash stared wildly over his shoulder, desperately trying to control his bucking car. Realizing this was impossible in reverse, Ash whipped the steering wheel around and popped the shift into drive, doing a complete 180 and burning rubber as his pursuer swiped at his back bumper. The chase continued, a terrified man in a car with a horrible demonic spirit hot on his heels.

It seems Ash still hadn't learned the important lesson of keeping ones mind on the task at hand. Due to this, Ashley's car struck a protruding stump, halted violently and sent the beleaguered driver catapulting out the windshield. He flew through the air, surrounded by a cocoon of flying shards of broken glass. For a second, he forgot everything, all the horror, all the pain, and focused on flying through the air, gently and gracefully. This heavenly feeling ended quickly when it was interrupted by the ground. Ash lay there for less than a second, blinking the darkness out of his vision before scrambling to his feet, making a mad dash for the cabin.

He was almost there, just a few meters and he would be inside, comparatively safer. Ashley's heart pounded away like a sledgehammer. He flung himself through the front door, wheeling around to slam it shut, but he was too late. His pursuer had been closer than he thought. After the crash, the evil thing had vaulted over the back of the car, through the back window and out the shattered windshield, where it resumed pace after its prey. And now it had crossed the threshold of the cabin and was less than a foot away from Ash's face. Without even breaking stride, Ash swiveled and ran, through the living room and into the main hall, slamming the door shut behind him, which was promptly demolished by the undead spirit. He sprinted through bedrooms, bathrooms and even through a crawlspace in between the walls. He could almost see it in his minds eye, a horrible spirit right behind him, empty, lidless eyes staring at him, skeletal clawed hands reaching out to snare him and a massive, dagger-toothed mouth ready to swallow him whole. He tore back into the main living room, which was occupied by the demonic force seconds later.

It stopped. The hideous thing hung their like a cloud of malevolence. It slowly drifted into the room that Ash had run into and scanned the area. Its quarry had disappeared. The blue-garbed human had simply vanished. How could he have escaped so quickly? Had he made a break for it into the woods? If so, it wouldn't be long before he was found. With a growl, the thing flew out the front door and back into the growing fog of early night.

Back in the cabin, the trapdoor to the cellar open slowly and a pair of quivering eyes peeked out of their owners hiding place.

Ash sighed when he realized that the thing was gone. But the danger was from over. This night was just beginning.

Author's notes: I'm back! With a shiny new chapter an' everything! 'Aint it great? Ol' Ash is in for another night of hell and things are really gonna pick up now! Read, Review, Enjoy.


	19. Part 2: Chapter 19: Dance Macabre

**Chapter 19**

**Dance Macabre**

The next hour was spent boarding up the windows of the cabin, patching up holes in the doors and generally armoring the cabin with spare lumber from all the furniture that had been demolished the previous night. Ash found the Necronomicon on the floor and after finding that he couldn't tear any of the pages, much less rip it to pieces, threw it on the desk next to the tape recorder. After the last couple of nails had been hammered into place, Ash was confident that little could get into the cabin unless it really, really wanted to. Now all he had to do was wait until daylight, find the trail Scotty had told him about and get out of here.

But things are rarely that simple, especially when there is an ancient malevolent Candarian force outside that is more than a little pissed off at you and bent on consuming your immortal soul.

That factor usually makes things as complex and terrifying as possible.

In all of the excitement, I, the narrator of this grisly yarn, bet that you, the reader have forgotten all about the actual owners of the fateful cabin. Ash sure had and for good reason. The previous owner of the cabin, Professor Raymond Knowby, was dead and gone, destroyed by the Candarian forces several weeks before Ash and his friends arrived. Nothing will be seen of him until a later chapter, where he will play a role in furthering the plot. His wife, Henrietta Knowby, is a different story, but we'll get to her later.

The important part of this breaking of the fourth wall is to call to attention the existence of the Knowby's daughter, Annie Knowby and her fiancé/colleague, Ed, a man of such little plot significance that he doesn't even warrant a last name. Anyway, Annie had been working with her parents and Ed on the history of Candarian culture and had been right beside her father when they discovered the Necronomicon. Her parents traveled back home to begin the deciphering of the text, and Ed came with them, but stayed at the university to write up an essay on the findings. Annie remained in Europe to investigate a lead on several missing pages of the book. She had very recently located said pages at a bazaar in southern Turkey, been warned by the creepy old man that ran the store that they were evil but was still willing to sell them to her, and was currently on a small plane back to Michigan to meet up with Ed, both of them conveniently oblivious to the fact that Professor Knowby and his wife were dead and that their cabin was currently occupied by a half-crazed, terrified department store employee.

Back to the story.

The small plane slowly ground top a stop, the buzz of the propeller still filling the night air. A mechanic placed a small set of stairs by the door as it flew open and a stream of passengers emptied out. One of the last to leave was a young woman. She had long, light brown hair and matching eyes. She was dressed in a scholarly fashion, with a sweater knotted over her yellow shirt and blue shorts that almost met her high, woolen socks. She was holding what looked like a glass picture frame close to her chest. Her name was Annabelle F. Knowby, historian and anthropologist, like her father. She stepped onto the tarmac, breathing in the cool night air. It was the greatest feeling in the world after being cooped up in a tiny airplane for nine and a half hours. She walked out towards the throng of people, searching for a familiar face. A blond man in a white striped shirt and jacket strode out of the crowd to meet her. "Annie!" he signaled to her. She smiled and the shared a quick kiss. "Hi" she smiled. Ed turned to the item in her hand. "How'd the expedition go?" "Great!" she said enthusiastically, revealing the contents of the case. "I found the missing pages of the book of the dead" Ed nodded "Yeah, I got your E-mail, so…what condition are they in?" Annie smiled "Take a look" He peered inside, at several wrinkled pieces of paper covered with reddish brown writing in some obscure, ancient dialect. He was astonished "They haven't aged a day in 3000 years!" Annie laughed "Maybe longer" Ed was excited now, he grinned "When can we begin the translations?" "Tonight" Annie replied "Is everything all set with my father?" Ed shrugged "It should be, but I haven't spoken with him in a few weeks, there's no phone up in the cabin, you know how reclusive your dad can get" Annie nodded, he once spent an entire week locked in his room when he was investigating a page from William the Terrible's Domesday book. "We'll take my car, it'll be another hour before we get there" Ed continued, loading Annie's bags into the trunk of his crappy, American made car.

"He hinted that he was on to something last time we spoke, what do you think he's found by now?" Annie shrugged "Probably nothing, but maybe, he's found the doorway to another world" She smiled again, she and her father had always had an interest of the occult, something her mother had always frowned upon. Annie climbed into the passenger side, looking forward to when she could see her parents again. Tonight was going to be really exciting.

Meanwhile, back at the cabin…

Ash slept fitfully, his entire body was rigid and tensed, his face twitching into a myriad of expressions and his eyes rolling under their lids. He was having the first of many bad dreams.

Suddenly his eyes flicked open and he glanced around the room as a strange noise drifted through the room. His ears pricked up. It sounded like someone running their fingers across a piano. He glanced around the room, trying to identify where the sound came from, his eyes falling on the door, desk, fireplace and the mounted deer's head on the wall above it. Silence, save the wind. Maybe it was just his imagination. But then, there it was again, the same eerie, lilting sound. It was definitely a piano. It was definitely coming from the sitting room. Ash slowly stood up. He might as well investigate. Warily, he crept towards the door that led to the source of the noise, still limping slightly from the wound on his calf. He slowly reached for the doorknob, slowly turning it and stepping away from the opening. For all he knew, this could be another trick. The lilting piano sounded off again. He edged through one of the bedrooms, flat against the wall and into the sitting room, where he finally found the source of the strange sounds. It was the piano in the far corner of the room that was making it. The piano was playing all by itself. Ash watched in horror as the keys moved up and down of their own accord, producing a haunting, bitter sweet melody that he knew all too well. _The Waltz of The Phantasm_. It had always been one of Linda's favorite songs. Ash had played it for her himself many times on his own piano. Linda.

All the horrible memories of last night came rushing back to him. Scotty was dead, Cheryl was dead, Linda was dead. He didn't even know Shelly, but she was dead too. All he had to remember any of them was a headful of bad memories and a small necklace. He reached into his pocket and pulled the little trinket out of his pocket. It still sparkled, like a tiny light in a sea of darkness and despair. To Ashley, it was like a diamond, one last anchor to hope. He started sobbing at the sheer horrible truth of his losses. Linda, the only woman he ever loved was gone. The music played on.

A crashing noise snapped Ash back into the present. Some of the boards over the rooms window had suddenly fallen off, like something had torn them down. He ran to the window and stared out between the remaining planks, trying to find the source of the destruction. The window had given him a clear view of Linda's grave. Slowly, the makeshift cross marking her resting place toppled over as the ground beneath it began to shift and stir. Ashley gazed on in terror and mesmerism as a rotting hand punched through the loose soil. All at once Linda's headless body erupted from the soil, standing straight up and swaying slightly as it slowly took a few steps. Her body was desiccated, rotten and decomposed as if she had been underground for a month instead of a day. Only a few tattered scraps of cloth hung on to her collapsed, decaying torso, the remains of her night gown clung to her skeletal legs as they began to move, weaving back and forth to the tune of the music. Her rotten arms swayed back and forth and Ash realized, as a cold chill ran down his spine, that she was dancing.

Linda twirled like a headless dervish, then bent low to the ground. Linda's head gave a giggle as it slowly rolled uphill from the shadowy area it had fallen the previous night. The severed neck connected with the stump on her bodies shoulder and she all at once stood up, her body complete as she continued her grisly dance. She stepped lightly as her boyfriend watched, weaving in and out of the trees like the worlds most horrible ballerina. She extended her arm as her head rolled off her shoulders, across her limb and into her hand like a hat. She placed it back on her neck and stepped into a spin, laughing as her body spun in circles while her head remained still, staring back at Ash. She finally stopped and turned, giving a final cry before leaping into the foggy night and disappearing. The piano stopped playing and slammed shut, leaving Ashley alone in silence, having just witnessed the whole, gruesome spectacle. He felt blank, like everything he could say or do had been sucked out of him. He continued to stare into the night, as if expecting an encore.

In a way, he got it. Linda suddenly lunged at him from out of nowhere, her fleshless arms punching through the cracks between the boards and grabbing Ashley on both sides of the head. _**"Dance with meeee!"**_she cackled, pulling Ashley's head towards her, where it promptly smashed against the wooden boards. She leaned back and tried again, then again. She seemed determined to pull him through the barricaded window, or pull his head off trying, whichever came first.

Ash yelled as he grabbed her arms, trying to pry her bony fingers off of him. They moved towards his neck as her head slowly, horribly toppled off of her shoulders. Ash screamed. He continued to scream even after he opened his eyes, sat bolt upright in his chair and yelled at what a horrible nightmare he had just had.

He sat in the rocking chair, staring forward, every muscle in his body tensed, every hair standing on end. Ash opened his mouth to yell again but he couldn't. It felt as though his throat was being gripped by steel fingers. He tried again and managed to make a small noise like a mouse being stepped on. Finally he broke the seal in his voice box with a long painful howl, spasming in the rocking chair like a wounded rodent. He yelled again, as if trying to expel all the horrible thoughts and memories out of his head through his mouth. He finally relaxed and went limp, breathing hard. Relax, he told himself, it was just a horrible, horrible hallucination produced by your mind that has almost snapped in half out of stress and terror. Yeah, just relax. Ash paused. Wait, if everything was okay now, then what the hell was that round heavy thing in his lap? He finally looked down and yelped. Linda's severed head had been resting in his lap the whole time.

"_**Hello lover"**_she whispered, smiling to reveal a set of needle sharp teeth. Then she used those teeth to bite down on Ashley's right hand. Hard. Ash yelped in pain and leaped to his feet. Linda's head hung on, determinedly hanging on to the small piece of flesh between Ashley's thumb and forefinger. Ash continued to howl as he careened around the room, desperate to remove the sudden additional 7 pounds of weight from his right limb. He yelled as he smashed her head into the wall, screamed as he repeatedly slammed a drawer shut on her and howled as he beat her with object after object. Still she hung on, her muffled voice grunting protest. Ash writhed in pain on the floor as Linda's teeth dug deeper. Suddenly it hit him, there was one place that would have everything he needed to remove Linda. "Workshed" he said aloud and, still wincing in pain, lurched out the back door.

Ash stumbled into the night, inhaling a deep lungful of foggy air and expelling it with another shout of pain. He collapsed to his knees, got up and kept going, shouldering through the door and into the shed. He turned on the light and peered around the room, desperate to find a solution. His eyes settled on a table-mounted vise. He rammed Linda's head into the steel clamp and wound it tight before finally having enough leverage to tear his hand free. As he clutched his wounded extremity, Linda screeched from her blood stain mouth. _**"Even now we have your darling Linda's soul! She suffers in torment!"**_

Ash scowled at his disembodied girlfriend. "Your going down!" he snarled, reaching up to grab a particular power tool off of it's hook, only to realize it wasn't there. "Chainsaw" Ash said to himself. Where the hell was it? Okay, think. Last time you used it, you were in here, then you couldn't go through with it, so you dropped it on the ground. He quickly scanned the floor. Nothing. Where could it have gotten to? Nobody else could have…no_body. _Aw, hell no.

Ashley's worst suspicions were confirmed when the door to the workshed burst open to reveal Linda's decapitated, desiccated body in the threshold. It lifted the missing chainsaw and a roar filled the tiny space as it was spurred to life. The horrible thing charged Ash, attempting to stab him with the activated lumber tool, Linda's head swiveling back and forth, attempting to take in the scene. With death from whirling, gas-powered blades rushing up to meet him, someone in Ashley's brain handed the controls over to instinct, which had always shown to be an excellent pilot in these situations, if a bit gruff and surly. Instinct did not disappoint. As the body brought the chainsaw over its shoulders to strike down on Ash's own head from above, he grabbed a crowbar from the table to defend himself. The crowbar blocked the kill blow and caused the chainsaw, whose inertia had to go somewhere, to rebound on the same arc it was brought down and to sink into the flashy tatters that were Linda-body's neck in a spray of greasy black blood, which happened to mostly spray in the direction of Ash's face. The wounded cadaver lurched around the room, attempting to pry out the still running power tool that had sunk into it's torso. Seeing his chance, Ash flung himself on top of his decayed girlfriend, pushing the blade deeper until it finally erupted from her abdomen in another spray of more black blood. The completely bisected body fell to the ground in two rough halves. Ash kneeled over her and pried the chainsaw from her cold, permanently dead hands. He started it up again, pausing only to remove a rotting arm that still clung to it, and paced towards Linda's head, ready to do what he couldn't have last night. He looked down and realized that Linda was crying. The white was gone from her tearful eyes and her teeth were back to normal. She was normal again. But…that was impossible! She was just a severed head! Ash couldn't let himself be suckered like this again. "P-Please Ash!" Linda sobbed "Please don't hurt me! Y-You swore we'd always be together! I love you!" Ash stared at her in a mixture of pain and confusion. What could he do? He had to do this, for her. But he DID love her, it was all threatening to tear apart underneath him. No, no. "NOOOO" he screamed aloud over the roar of the saw. "_**Yes!**_" screeched the re-demonized Linda, cackling as black pus oozed from her mouth. Ash stared her in the milky eyes and scowled. He finally saw, the thing in front of him wasn't Linda, Linda was dead and the only thing he could do about it was to destroy this evil thing that had killed her and inhabited her shell. "Okay…" Ash said, breathing the gas fumes from the engine. The numbing effect helped. "Okay!" It wasn't Linda anymore.

Both were screaming as the metal teeth sliced down into her forehead.

As expected, the spray of blood struck Ash in the face with surprising force.

Author's notes:

Sorry for the long wait, have an extra meaty chapter for your trouble. Now with 70% more chainsaw. Well Linda's finally out of the picture. Looks like smooth sailing for ol' Ashy boy. Not.

Next chap will be up sooner. Have a good march break.

SPRING BREAK!!! WOOOOOO!!! (lifts up shirt)


	20. Part 2: Chapter 20: Off His Rocker

**Chapter 20**

**Off His Rocker**

Ash staggered out from the bloodstained workshop. He had managed to give the entire inside a very messy colour scheme. Well, he thought to himself as he trudged back inside the cabin, I never did that before and I still can't believe I did. He walked into the cabin, locking the door behind him. At this point Ashley was really wondering if it was really worth the trouble. Maybe he should just give up now and go insane; it would save a lot of time and effort.

Ash remembered that he was still holding the chainsaw. He should keep it, he might need a weapon. He thought about the shotgun.

Ash grabbed it from the small table where he left it. He hefted up both weapons, wondering which one he should use. He couldn't carry both, he only had two hands. Ultimately it came down to a simple question. Cut em' apart, or blow em' away? He finally decided on the blow em' away approach, dropping the chainsaw with a thud. He felt ready.

A horrible noise passed through the living room, like a gust of wind honestly trying to sound as eerie as possible. It sounded like it was emanating from the rocking chair. Ash looked at it. The chair looked at him. It physically turned towards him and slowly started to rock back and forth, as if mocking him, daring him to come closer and sit in it. Ash pointed the gun at the still swaying chair and slowly walked towards it, ready to fire at a moments notice. Though he really couldn't imagine what the chair would do. He lowered his gun and slowly reached out to the animate piece of furniture. Just before his fingers brushed it, the eerie thing stopped moving.

OK, Ash thought as he moved away from the chair slowly, It's alright, it's cool, I'm cool, everybody's cool. _Deargodnoyou'renotyoukilledyourbestfreindbythrowinganevilbookintoafireplaceyoursisterisdeadsomethingterribleistryingtokillyouohandlet'snotforgetyoukilledthewomanyoulovedwithafreakingCHAINSAW!_

Ashley reeled backwards, dropping the shotgun and moaning at the sheer maddening truth of it all: He was going insane.

Ash gripped the small desk in front of the mirror and stared at his reflection. It was a terrifying sight. His face was beat up and cut. A bruise was forming over his left eye and blood that wasn't his had traced black and crimson lines across his face. The collar of his shirt had been torn off on one side, leaving a jagged edge against his neck. Another gash had been torn in the fabric of his right sleeve. On the whole, he looked just like he felt. Ash looked in his own eyes and rasped to himself "I'm fine" he said it again to be sure "I am fine".

Apparently his reflection didn't agree and leaned out of the mirror, grabbing Ash by the throat. With the pressure on his windpipe, he managed to make a noise similar to that of a mouse being stepped on.

"Fine?" his doppelganger snarled "We just cut up our girlfriend with a chainsaw, does that sound fine to you?" His hands squeezed tighter as he began to laugh. A slow, rueful insane laugh. Ash staggered away from the mirror gasping for oxygen. He couldn't breathe. He cursed the hands at his neck, willing them to stop. They did. Ashley looked down and in an unsettling moment, realized his assailants hands were his own. He had been strangling himself. The impact of this sank in as he glared suspiciously at his reflection. It was simply that, a reflection. The light his body absorbed and gave off directed back at him by a reflective surface. And everyone knew that reflections couldn't leap out of their mirrors and certainly couldn't talk. That was just silly.

Ash gripped the table. Okay, he was going crazy, but he was still sane enough to know it. If he could stay in that state of mind, he might come out in one piece, still happy and well-adjusted.

Fate had other plans and this became readily apparent to Ash as his wounded hand suddenly flared in pain. Ash gasped in agony as he looked down at his right hand and gawked as black lines started to spider web across his hand, like cracks across a frozen pond. His hand was on fire, and freezing at the same time. Like it was doused in acid and having broken glass rubbed in it simultaneously. It felt exactly like his whole body did when he had been possessed. Ash could only look on in horror as the skin on his right hand took on a fetid, waxy complexion, the veins bulging and constricting as the nails grew longer and dirtier. It resembled a hand that belonged to a dead man attached to a perfectly healthy forearm, attached to a perfectly terrified man. _The bite_ he realized with a jolt, Linda's bite had somehow infected his hand! But why hadn't the spirit spread, like any good virus? He had little time to ponder this as his hand spasmed wildly of its own accord, like an upended beetle attached to his wrist. It suddenly slumped, as if exhausted by its convulsions. Ashley raised his limp appendage, inspecting its quivering form. Maybe he could reverse the effects, maybe he could-

Nothing cuts off your train of thought quite like your own hand which has suddenly become not your own leaping at your face, dragging your arm behind it no less, latching on to your head and attempting to gouge out your eyes with its elongated nails. Ashley howled in pain, grabbing his right wrist and prying the offending digits off his face, leaving a long cut next to his left eye. He collapsed to the ground, holding down his aggravated hand in rage and madness. "You bastards!" he growled to every ethereal demonic presence within earshot. "You dirty BASTARDS!" he started to sob slightly in despair, pleading. "Give me back my hand" He snarled again, returning to rage and ending his schizophrenic outburst with another cry. "GIVE ME BACK MY HAND!!!!"

The small sports car wound up the dark, empty road leading to the bridge that would take them to the cabin. The two occupants, Ed and Annie were anticipating their arrival with great fervor. Annie could hardly wait to begin translating the Candarian texts with her father and Ed. Who knew what those pages contained? Ed was also looking forward to arriving at the cabin. He was always trying to impress Professor Knowby, trying to prove he was worthy of courting his daughter, but Raymond never seemed to pay much attention to him.

Ed started to slow down the car as he approached the bridge. The fog was unusually thick tonight. An orange light suddenly flashed directly in front of him. It disappeared just as quickly. Ed pulled the car to a stop. Annie rotated in her seat, "Eddy, what's the matter?" She got out of the car, trying to see through the mist blanketing the area. The orange light flashed on and off again. Ed got closer and realized the unknown light was emanating from a signal light placed in the middle of the road, the kind of sign you put up in front of a car accident. What happened here? Annie noticed a man, probably the one who had set up the roadblock, walking back to a truck parked off the road. "Excuse me?" The man didn't seem to notice her, "Excuse me?" the man finally turned. He was tubby, with unshaven face and greasy looking hair, wearing a stained shirt and denim overalls. "Yeah?" he spoke in a gravelly voice created from a lifetime of cigarettes and lousy food. "Is this the path to the Knowby cabin?" Annie asked, trying to ignore the smell that seemed to get stronger the closer she got to him. "Sure is" he replied "But you 'aint goin' there". Annie raised an eyebrow "Why not?"

In response the as of yet unnamed gentleman turned on his trucks high beams, piercing through the fog and illuminating the bridge, or at least, what was left of it. The bridge was completely destroyed, as if the worlds smallest hurricane had torn through it. Their side simply dropped away into the gorge below, but the other side had its metal support beams bent back, as if trying to cage in something on the other side. Annie was shocked. If she couldn't reach them, then maybe her parents couldn't leave. "There's gotta be another way in, like a road or something!" she said, turning to the smelly man imploringly. "There aint no road" a female voice stated flatly behind her. Annie and Ed turned as their new friend scrambled up to the source of the voice. It was a woman leaning up against the truck she had been sitting in until a few moments ago. She spat something out of her mouth and continued, her south accent just as thick as her friend's "Why the hell you wanna go up there for anyways?" The man and woman stood side by side. Ed wondered if they were a couple, or related. Maybe both. Annie sneered "None of your business". The woman turned to her companion. "C'mon Jake" She started back to the truck. Jake lit up a cigarette, paused, and then clapped his hands as if realizing something. He smiled "Hey! I just remembered! Why- that's right there is a trail! You could follow Bobby Joe and me!" Ed shrugged "Sounds good to me". Jake interrupted "But it'll cost ya" Annie stepped forward; she was the haggler of the two. "How much?" Jake closed his eyes, trying to conjure up a good sounding number. "Forty fi-" he was promptly cut off as Bobby elbowed him in the gut "Hundred" he wheezed, attempting to regain what little composure he had. Annie smiled "Tell you what, take my bags and you got a deal"

"Sure" Jake snickered, peering at the handbag and purse in the back of Ed's car. Annie smiled back. He hadn't seen what was in their trunk.

Author's notes:

Well I finally managed to get off my ass and finish the chapter. Sorry for the wait…

Wait a second, why am I apologizing to you? I'm not getting paid for this! I'm getting nothing! You, the reader simply expect me to finish the next chapter out of the goodness of my heart, purely because I like you guys? What if I don't like you? Maybe I hate you for making me feel bad for waiting so long between updates! That's it! I despise you all! DIE! SCREW YOU! DIE! DIE! DIE!

Next chapter will be up sooner, I promise.


	21. Part 2: Chapter 21: Getting Out of Hand

**Chapter 21**

**Getting Out of Hand**

Ashley spasmed wildly around the inside of the cabin, all of his energy bent on restraining his rebellious right hand. He stumbled into the kitchen and smacked it onto the counter top, turning on the faucet and forced Righty into the icy water stream. Maybe he could drown it. It's fingers started to scrabble wildly as water filled the plugged sink, quickly immersing the still twitching appendage. It seemed to be trying to swim up to the surface. The hand seemed to become more panicked as it's movements became more sluggish, like it was loosing oxygen. Finally it went limp, drifting dead in the water.

Ash turned off the tap and rested his head against the faucet, letting his right hand float in the water like a dead goldfish in a toilet. He couldn't believe that actually worked.

It hadn't.

Righty scrambled out of the sink, pulling itself out and scuttling across the counter like a giant, fleshy spider. It tugged an oblivious Ashley's right arm behind it like a leash until it finally closed itself over a dinner plate lying on the counter. Ash looked up just in time to notice his hand launching itself along the pivot of his elbow. It brought the plate crashing over his head. "Oh god!" Ash howled at the sheer insanity of it all as his hand grabbed another weapon from the counter-top. He wrestled a fork out of it's grip, and attempted to stab it as the possessed digits scrambled around like a crab. It clutched another plate, again shattering it over his head. Then again, with another piece of ceramics.

"Dear god!" Ashley yelped again as Righty grabbed him by his hair and started slamming his head into the counter-top. Every blow to the table seemed to say _"You like that? Huh? Doesn't feel so good on this end does it?" _His hand's grip spun Ash into the center of the room. He yelped as it sharply pulled his scalp downwards, taking the rest of his body with it and causing him to flip forward through the air and land spectacularly on his own ass in a feat that would have been very impressive in any other circumstance.

Ash lay there, his backed propped up against a cabinet, trying to collect his thoughts as Righty continued to wail on him, punching him in the face a few times before finally delivering unconsciousness by way of an empty beer bottle to the skull. Ashley slumped over, hitting the ground with a thud as his hand scuttled over to another plate, dragging his arm behind it. Righty paused. Across the room a butcher's knife lay amongst the rubble of their scuffle. Now there was something it could do some damage with. It reached out, cursing when it realized it couldn't reach. The idiot that it was connected to didn't have long enough arms. Okay, it could solve this. Stretching out as far as it's fleshy tether would take it, the hand dug it's fingernails into the floor and pulled, succeeding in moving it's host's body a few inches. It repeated this action, and again and again, slowly dragging Ashley's still form face down across the wreckage strewn floor. The knife was just in it's grasp when suddenly, things went south. Ash had regained consciousness halfway through the dragging and had promptly grabbed a smaller kitchen knife from the floor. Now he howled and in a single stab, drove the knife down through his hand and into the floor below in a spray of blood. Righty seemed to squeal like a wounded animal as Ash smiled through gritted teeth. "Yeah!" he finally grunted through the pain. "That's right! Who's laughing now?" Ash spied the chainsaw, still lying on the floor were he dropped it earlier. All at once he knew what had to be done, egged on by the testosterone and adrenaline coursing through his veins. He grabbed the tool and grabbed the ripcord in his teeth, managing to rev it to life with one sharp pull. "WHO'S LAUGHING NOW?!!!" He screamed over the roar of the chainsaw. Ash howled in a combination of pain, madness and triumph as the whirling metal teeth began to messily tear through the flesh of his wrist, spraying gouts of blood into his face, blinding him in a wave of crimson.

Hey, let's leave our dear friend Ashley for a moment and check out what Annie and co. are up to.

A flashlight pierced the unnatural fog that seemed to flood the forest, followed by a second and third beam. The procession marched through the woods, first Bobby Joe, striding confidently along a path that had been beaten out by hundreds of footsteps that she knew by heart. Next was Ed, warily scanning the dark shapes of the tree's surrounding them. Every now and then, he could swear he saw something move out of the corner of his eye, bur when he turned to look, it was just another in a long line of trees and trees sure as hell didn't move around. Annie followed close behind him, clutching the pages of the Necronomicon against her chest, stumbling over the uneven terrain. She was also a little creeped out, but more by the fact that aside from the occasional gust of wind and creak of a tree, there were no sounds of any kind, no crickets, or owls or anything else you would expect to find in a forest at night, just an eerie silence. She felt glad she was on the trail. Something about being on something man made gave her a feeling of security, like it was a lifeline through the increasingly disturbing woods. Leading up their party was Jake, grunting, wheezing and cursing as he hefted a massive chest on his back and an additional suitcase under his arm. He was clearly unhappy with his designation as group packmule. "When I said, carry her stuff" he grunted under his breath "Thought she was talkin' 'bout two goddamn little bags!" He stumbled slightly, feeling the weight on his back shift, praying it didn't fall off again.

Meanwhile back at the Lodge, er- Cabin.

Ashleys hand started scrabbling as soon as it separated from his arm. He tossed the chainsaw into a corner of the room and viciously kicked the squirming thing, sending it flying across the room, landing on its back palm, fingers wriggling in the air like the legs of an upturned beetle. Ash grabbed a wastebasket with his remaining hand and placed it on top of the possessed appendage upside-down, forming a miniature prison. "Here's your new home" he scowled, grabbing a pile of books from the desk and placing theme on top to weigh it down. He ruefully noticed the one on the top stack. _A Farewell To Arms. _Come on.

Ash suddenly staggered as the testosterone and adrenaline faded from his system. His vision swam and he grabbed a desk to steady himself. Ash realized that he was loosing blood, he was going into shock, his wound might become infected and oh yeah, he was missing his right hand. He limped over to the first aid kit, still lying open from when he had used most of it on Scotty. Ashley rifled through what was left. Not much by the looks of things. He sprayed as much disinfectant as he could on the wound. Not satisfied, he grabbed a bottle of something clear and volatile from the fridge and used half on his stump and half on himself. Fortunately, depending on how you look at it, when his hand became possessed the flesh around it necrotized, effectively cutting off most blood circulation, making the wound bleed less profusely than dismemberment would usually result in. He still applied as much styptic as possible to the wound. Something still wasn't working, he still felt his heart going five miles a minute and his consciousness still felt like it was slipping through his fingers. _Shock._

He was still ready to pass out. Thinking quickly, Ash grabbed his sisters Epi-pen from the first aid kit (Citrus, in case you're wondering) and injected it into his thigh, the extra shot of adrenaline enough he needed to clear his head.

The medical emergency dealt with, Ash grabbed a handkerchief off of the nearby nightstand and began the complex surgical procedure of duct-taping it over his stump, padded with a little gauze. As he wound the silvery adhesive around his mangled wrist, the realization that he had cut off his right hand sunk in. It really sucked. There would be a whole bunch of things he couldn't do anymore. Two major thoughts passed through his head. The first was _Thank God I'm left-handed_ and the second being _Hell, Righty was always my Cinemax hand!_

A clatter from the far side of the room broke Ashley's chain of thought and directed his line of sight towards the upturned wastebasket lying in a corner. It was loose.

Ash scanned the room, fearful of his hand leaping out at him from the darkness. He thought he heard a scuttling, and whipped around. Nothing. Ashley grabbed the shotgun off of the floor and held it up, his left hand on the trigger and the stock balanced on what remained of his right arm, ready to open fire at the slightest movement.

At that moment, Annie made out the lights of their cabin in the distance through the trees. She smiled at the thought of what her mother was cooking. Hopefully she would be making her specialty, blood pudding.

What Annie was anticipating was half right.

**Authors notes:**

Bah, I don't know what's wrong with me lately. I wanna write, I just don't get around to it. Oh well, I'll see what I can do. Enjoy the new chapter, hopefully the next one will come out before June.

By the way, possible other names for this chapter.

Hand to Hand Combat

Getting a Handle on Things

Gotta Hand It Too Him

Hoo boy, Here We Go

and

The Best Part of the Movie


	22. Part 2: Chapter 22: I'm Not A Killer

**Chapter 22**

**I'm Not A Killer**

Ash whipped around, eyes trained on a small patch of floor he could have sworn he saw move a few seconds ago. The gun balanced on his right forearm started to tremble. He lowered it and wiped away the sweat from his forehead with the sleeve of his bloodstained shirt. The last thing he wanted was something leaping at his face.

Behind him, in a crevasse between the wall and one of the few remaining sticks of furniture, Righty crouched like the worlds bloodiest spider. His former masters back was turned, it could make a break for the mouse hole on the far wall. He started scrabbling.

Ash heard the sound of fingernails on wood. Wincing, he swiveled around, raising the shotgun once more, he turned and saw the hand that was formerly his crawling along the floor like Thing from The Addams Family. He took aim briefly, but briefly was too long, as Righty scuttled into a mouse hole in the wall and out of sight. Ash cursed at his hesitance. He should have just fired; even a glancing blow would have been enough to cripple it.

He could still hear it, it's nails scratching against the wood and drywall as it climbed between the walls, still giving off a peculiar squeaking noise, like a possessed chipmunk. He aimed at the sound and fired, blasting a melon-sized hole in the wall, but failing to hit anything but plaster. Ashley cracked open the barrels and hastily reloaded, glancing upwards as he did so, trying to spot his runaway appendage.

_There! _It was huddled just out of sight in a second, larger mouse hole, crouching right next to a primed rat trap. It seemed to be tapping its fingers impatiently, mocking his inability to react. Ash dropped the second shell into place and clicked the gun closed, raising it once more. The hand quickly scuttled to the right, out of the line of fire and right into the waiting metal jaws of the rat trap. A loud snap echoed through the room along with a squeal of pain as the trap closed around its fleshy prey. Ash looked up from the sights and let out a sharp, barking laugh at his enemy's predicament. Righty quickly extricated itself from its wiry prison and promptly flipped on it's back, raising up on its remaining chunk of wrist, extending the middle finger.

"Sonuva-" Ash muttered, as he realized he was being flipped off by his own right hand. He raised the shotgun again, but by then, his quarry had already scuttled out of sight. He grunted in frustration and again raised his eyes to the wall, trying to listen for the distinct rustling and squeaking. He concentrated, trying to imagine where it would be. A sharp screech gave away Rightys position and he opened fire with both barrels, blowing two more holes in the wall. A sound emanated from one of them, like a squirrel being trodden on and a small trickle of blood leaked out of the hole. Ash cackled as he reloaded. "Gotcha! Didn't I ya little sucker?"

Something was wrong though. Instead of petering out, the pressure of the blood coming out of the wall seemed to be building. It grew from a trickle to a flow, then to a squirt, then a full blown spray. Ash stepped back as a deep rumbling grew louder behind the wall. With little to no warning, a massive jet or crimson blood shot out the wall like a riot cannon and took Ash full in the face.

Ashley howled in alarm and disgust as he staggered out of the stream, spitting out the salty fluid. What the hell? What the hell, what the hell, what the hell. Another two jets tore out of the other two holes Ash had blown in the wall. He staggered through all three and was drenched in a matter of seconds. He could barely see as the room was quickly flooded. He waded through the now knee deep blood, slipped, and fell backwards, completely submersed. He breached, right into another jet, as it turned from blood into dark black pus. As quickly as the bodily fluids appeared, they disappeared, sucked back into the walls through the same holes they came from. In a matter of seconds, the room was spotless, save a single, one handed, blood-drenched and slightly insane young man. He stalked around the cabin, aiming the now useless seeming gun at various bits of the house, as if daring them to leap out and attack him. "Me an' the ol' double barrel here!" he howled at any unholy presences who happened to be listening, and at the whole cabin in general. "We'll blow yer guts to kingdom come!" He quieted down, attempting to sound in control "See if we don't!"

He promptly sat down on a chair, which promptly collapsed under his weight. It was just too much. Ash sat on the floor, blinking the blood from his eyes and conveying a general hatred of everything, when he heard a cracking noise that sounded like someone's neck breaking. He glanced in its direction and saw the deer head mounted on the wall glancing back at him. Then it started laughing at him.

Ash felt like crying.

The bookcase joined in, cackling away in a manner that only a bookcase can manage. Then the books, then the couch, clock and lamp. Everything was laughing as though his pants had fallen down.

Ash wanted to scream, he wanted to howl, he wanted to tear apart the cabin and everything inside. He wanted to kill everything everyone, everywhere. Instead, he laughed. He laughed long and hard with everything else, He cackled with the shelves, whooped with the desk and bobbed up and down, slapping his knees with the lamp. What else was there to do?

Gradually he started to laugh louder; then started howling, then was just screaming, as if he could expel all the horror and madness around him with the power of his voice alone.

Then everything grew quiet as someone knocked on the front door.

Without hesitation, Ash raised the gun and fired twice; blasting two more holes in the already well perforated door. A shriek sounded from outside and once again it was silent. Ashley hastily reloaded and crept to towards the front door, gun at the ready. He pushed it open with the still smoldering barrels and probed the dark foggy air with his firearm. Nothing. Maybe he had just winged the whatever that was outside. He had best get inside before it came back. Ash lowered the gun and stepped back from the door, just as something blurry and angry lunged through it, tackling him to the ground and knocking the shotgun out of his hands.

A few seconds earlier…

Annie, Ed, Bobby Joe and Ed all cleared the last row of trees and stumbled into the clearing where the Knowby cabin lay. All at once Annie sensed something was wrong. There was a strange car parked, well, crashed into a stump near the house with broken glass littering the area; the windows of the cabin appeared to be boarded up; the screen door had been ripped off and most strange of all, they could all hear someone inside intermittently laughing and screaming.

Maybe her parents were watching a movie. The car might have belonged to someone who sought refuge in their cabin, maybe last night. Ed had said that the weather was pretty horrible, that's probably why they boarded up the windows. Wind must have taken the screen door right off.

As Annie's mind attempted to mangle this new information into something reasonable and optimistic, she and the three others crept closer to the cabin. Whatever film they were watching it was loud. The screaming was really unpleasant. Annie walked up the steps and knocked on the door.

Sometimes what you expect to happen and what actually happens are so different from one another that you are thrown for such a loop that you really have no idea what to do next. In this instance, Annabelle Knowby was expecting her Mother or Father to open the door, welcoming her and her friends inside. Or maybe the owner of the car would emerge and ask her mother and father who these four were. That isn't what happened. The only things to emerge from the cabin were twin loads of buckshot. One narrowly missed Annie's face, the other grazing Bobby-Joe, who shrieked in pain and surprise.

Ed was the first to react. He grabbed the wounded Bobby-Joe and Annie, pulling them into the bushes near the door and silently signaling Jake to join them. Annie attempted to stifle her heavy breathing as she watched from between the branches. The door was kicked open and a figure emerged. He looked like something out of a horror movie. The bad guy that is. He was wearing a torn shirt that probably was blue once upon a time, but was stained to an indigo-crimson with blood and dirt. In his left hand he was clutching what looked like her fathers shotgun and there was nothing but a bloody piece of cloth and duct-tape where his right hand should have been. He had a hunched, guarded look and a very deranged look in his eye. Just looking at him terrified Annie. All theories and ideas as to what was going on went flying out the window and she was now acting purely on impulse. The man with the gun stood there for a few more seconds, then lowered the gun and backed slowly back into the cabin. Jake, obviously infuriated at this stranger harming his wife, roared and leapt at the man, lunging at him from out of the shadows and flattening him to the floor in a possessed fury. The two struggled, rolling around on the floor as the man managed to strike Jake with his remaining hand. Ed entered the cabin and then the fray next, kicking the shotgun out of reach and helping Jake pin the individuals arms down. When he was unable blindly lash out, the stranger finally seemed to take stock of his surroundings. His eyes widened as Jake gave him two strong blows, knocking him out cold.

The attacker dealt with, Jake turned to a wounded Bobby-Joe. "You gonna be alright honey?" he asked, his voice full of concern. She grasped the long gash on her shoulder. "I-I think so"

Jake turned back to the unconscious form on the floor, fire back in his eyes. "You know this son of a _bitch_?" he snarled, punctuating his last word with a kick across the face. Ed blinked a few times and finally said "Um, no. We were expecting her parents." He motioned to Annie, who was just walking in through the front door. "That's why we were-" He was cut off by Annie, who had just taken in the entire scene. "Oh my god" her voice trembled. "Where are my parents?"

Then she noticed the bloody chainsaw lying in the corner of the room and the equally bloody stranger lying in the _middle _of the room.

Immediately her mind leaped to the worst case scenario and she leapt down at the man she was positive had murdered her parents with a power tool.

"What the hell did you do to them!?" she screamed, shaking him by the collar. "What the hell did you do!?" Her furious shaking seemed to wake the murderer slightly. He groaned as he was shaken up and down. "Hrrm…guh?" He slurred, trying to speak "I..didn't..ughhh. Not as bad as it...books. Ughhh. Nercomonacan".

"Annie, c'mere!" Ed reached down and dragged his raving girlfriend off of the man before she killed him. Jake looked around the room, trying to figure out what to do with this guy before he woke up. His eyes settled on the trapdoor to the basement. "We'll throw him in there" he pointed. He started dragging the man towards the door "Crazy buck-scum blood skip!" The thought of being hurled into the cellar finally work the murderer up. He stared up wards at Jake "Wait" he spoke weakly, his head still addled by the various kicks and punches "I- I made a…mistake" He stared in obvious horror at the trapdoor as Ed pulled it open. "No!...wait! I-I made a mistake!" Jake propped him up in front of the hole leading to the basement. "Damn right you made a mistake" he growled "Flat mouthed son of a _bitch_" He continued the habit of punctuating his sentences with kicks, this one catching the man under the jaw and knocking him backwards into the basement, his head managing to bounce off of every single step on the way down. He finally hit the earthen floor and was still. Ed, Jake and Bobby-Joe all stared down at him. "I hope you rot down there!" she spat as Jake slammed the door shut and locked it.

A while later, some semblance of the word peace had been restored to the cabin. Ed was still trying to comfort a distraught Annie and Jake was tending to a wounded Bobby-Joe. The maniac in the cellar had grown quiet and aside from the occasional audible muttering, was fairly silent. Bobby swore sharply as the sting of the hydrogen peroxide raced up her arm from the spot Jake was attempting to disinfect. "I know it hurts now baby" Jake said tenderly "But I'll getcha fixed up, then we'll go round a get the sheriff" Bobby nodded weakly as Jake tied a cloth around her cut. Meanwhile Ed was still trying to council Annie. "I've checked all the other rooms" he said, entering the study "Your folks aren't here. Maybe they never came". Annie moved over to the roll top desk. "But these are my fathers things" Everything Professor Knowby would have brought with him was there. His notes, his books, The Necronomicon itself and his tape recorder. She absentmindedly pressed the play button on the recorder and all at once her fathers voice filled the cabin. With growing dread, Annie and Ed listened to the tape.

"_It's only been a few hours since I translated and read aloud the resurrection passages from the Book of the Dead" _Annie immediately sensed something was wrong. Her normally even keeled, stable father sounded unlike himself. His voice was cracking and wavering. He sounded afraid, shaken. "Listen up" she said "This is my father's voice" The tape continued "_And my wife has already become host to a Candarian demon…May god forgive me for what I have unleashed onto this earth. Last night, Henrietta tried to, kill me," _"No" Annie said aloud, hardly believing what she was hearing. "_It's now October 1__st__, 8:30 PM. Henrietta is dead. I could not bring myself to dismember her corpse, so I dragged her down the steps, and I buried her. I buried her in the cellar. God help me, I buried her in the earthen floor of the fruit cellar". _It was then that a very loud shriek emanated from the basement.

**Authors Notes:**

Welp, that's the end of the longest chapter ever. Enjoy it's sweet, gory goodness. The next one will come, whenever.

I love you all.


	23. Part 2: Chapter 23: Bit Part Demon

**Chapter 23**

**Bit Part Demon**

Ash blearily opened his eyes and was greeted with mass amounts of pain across his entire body. What the hell had just happened? Why did he hurt everywhere? Why the hell was he in the cellar?

_Well okay, I guess I can field those. _Ash nearly did a double take. "Voice? Helpful Voice? Is that you?" _ Yeah, it's me, been watching you for a while and I figured you could use my help again. _Ash shrugged "Um, thanks. But aren't you just a fracture of my personality brought out of my subconscious by stress?" _Well, yeah. But that doesn't mean I can't help you out. _"Okay, whatever" Ash said, slumping into a sitting position against the steps and rubbing the back of his head. "Now, about why I woke up face down in the cellar?" _Well, while you were busy yucking it up with the furniture, some folks came by and knocked on the door and in response, you fired your shotgun, like any sane human would in that situation and in return, they wait until your guard is down and pin you. _"Jerks" Ash interjected. _Tell me about it. Anywho, after you officially gave them the worst first impression ever, things get a little fuzzy. I would attribute that to the nasty welt on your head. Then I guess they decided to lock you down here so you wouldn't cause them anymore trouble. _

Ash took this all in calmly. "Okay, so what do we now?" _I suggest we hang here for awhile. You could use the rest. Trust me, once they figure out what's going on, they'll be begging you for help._

Ash spent the next while sitting against the stairs, looking up at the ceiling and listening to the other four pacing around upstairs and talking. He heard something about the getting the sheriff, the owners not being here and other stuff. Then he heard a click and Professor Knowby's voice filled the cabin. "_It's only been a few hours since I translated and read aloud the resurrection passages from the Book of the Dead and my wife has already become host to a Candarian demon…may God forgive me for what I've unleashed onto this earth. Last night, Henrietta tried to, kill me. It's now October 1__st__, 8:30 PM. Henrietta is dead. I could not bring myself to dismember her corpse, so I dragged her down the steps and I buried her. I buried her in the cellar. God help me, I buried her in the earthen floor of the fruit cellar…" _Ashley's eyes widened as he took in the repercussions of what he had just heard. _Oh shit._ At that moment, something pale, round and crawling with maggots burst out of the ground in the most unpleasant way possible. It rose upwards out of its grave, revealing itself to be the head and torso of a severely desiccated fat old lady.

Ash decided now was a good time to scream.

The four upstairs all jerked upwards at one at the sound of an effeminate shriek from the basement. Jake swiveled around, "What the hell was that?"

The undead creature roared in return as it advanced on the panic stricken young man. "SOMEONES IN MY FRUIT CELLAR!" the undead thing growled, "SOMEONE WITH A FRESH SOUUUUL!"

Upstairs Ed, Jake, Bobby Joe and Annie all ran into the living room just as the trapdoor swung open as far as the chain would allow, revealing the babbling head of the violent stranger. "AUUGHHH!" he described eloquently "Let me out! Aurghaauuhh! There's something down here!"

Annie cringed at the notion of letting this maniac loose, but was starting to understand exactly what he was so terrified of. "Let him out of there!" she finally yelped. "What?" Jake cried, whipping around to face her. "It's a trick! I know it is!" "Let him out!" Annie howled. Jake groaned and snatched the key to the cellar from a desk. He knelt down to unlock it, but the man's wild bucking was making it impossible to align key and lock. "Hold still!"

Ash agreed, panting as he gazed back down the steps, at the creature that was now at the foot of the stair case. "I'll swallow YOUR SOUL!" It's head seemed to morph into a much more hideous appearance, if that was even possible. It looked like a cross between E.T. and a vampire, it's gaping, drooling mouth filled with jagged teeth. It's neck extended like a snake, sending the thing's face closer to Ashley's. Ash howled in fear as he stared into it's blank, white eyes. Suddenly a pair of hands grabbed his head, dragging him out of the cellar.

Jake dragged the panic stricken man out of the cellar. "Alright, now what's the- Holy!" What came out of Ed's mouth as the undead thing reared it's hideous head out of the trapdoor sounded like every profanity in the English language regurgitated backwards in one long swear word. It reached out with long, clammy hands and snatched at the three of them as it clamped it's jaws around the unknown man's foot. He grunted, attempting to kick himself free. Jake grabbed him around the middle and threw him clear. The cellar-thing grabbed Jake's face with a clawed hand and attempted to gouge out his eyes. Ed ran up, punching its pallid face. It grabbed his with it's other had and hurled him across the room. He struck the wall with enough force to take out a chunk of drywall. Ed slumped to the ground and into unconsciousness. Annie was on the edge of hysterics. Her eyes darted up to the stranger, who had appeared behind the open trapdoor. He had a strange look in his eyes, not one of fear. If anything it was determination and anger. Wordlessly, he kicked the trapdoor shut, pinning the horrid creatures head and arms between it and the floor, freeing Jake. He lept on top of the hatch, crushing the thing's skull with enough force to send an eyeball flying from its socket, across the room and into Bobby-Joes screaming mouth. She gagged on the slippery thing as it slid into the back of her mouth and then, terribly, down her throat. Jake, unaware of his wife's disgusting predicament, kicked the cellar-thing's head out from between the hatch and floor, sending it tumbling down the stairs and into the darkness. Annie watched as the stranger threw himself on the trapdoor, hurriedly chaining it shut with his remaining hand. Jake joined him as they attempted to hold down the door and the bucking, shrieking creature below. Finally, it seemed to stop. The man looked at Jake, then at the still form of Ed and finally at Bobby-Joe and Annie. "Okay" He rasped "I think we all deserve some explaining". Outside, the evil force stirred. One of the humans in the cabin was vulnerable.

Ash leaned down, adding another log to the fire "There's something out there. That witch in the cellar is only part of it" Introductions and apologies had circulated around the cabin. Annie was tending to an unconscious Ed and Jake was waiting outside the bathroom, listening to Bobby-Joe repeatedly wretch into the toilet. "It lives, out in those woods. In the dark…something, something that's come back from the dead" Bobby-Joe yelped as she entered the room "Please, let's just get the hell out of here!" Jake grabbed her by the arm "Damn straight! We're gonna get on that trail and-" "No one goes out that door!" Ash yelled at the both of them. "Not 'till daylight!" Jake grabbed him by the collar. "Now, you listen to me-" he stopped as a strange tune filled the cabin. Someone was singing. They all simultaneously turned to the cellar.

_Hush little baby, don't say a word_

_Mama's gonna buy you a mocking bird_

_If that mocking bird don't sing,_

_Momma's gonna buy you a diamond ring_

Annie stood up. She knew that voice. Her mother stared back at her from the cellar, clutching the chain with her weak hands.

_If that diamond ring turns brass,_

_Momma's gonna buy you a looking glass_

It was impossible. She couldn't be real. But there she was, singing that lullaby like she always had. Annie crept closer. "You remember that song Annie?" She whispered gently "I used to sing it to you when you were a baby." Annie gawked. "Mother?" she felt like crying for joy. Her mom was okay. "Unlock this chain!" Henrietta said fearfully. "Quickly!"

Annie was just about to, when a strong hand grasped her arm. She turned around and found Ash. At first she couldn't understand why he was stopping her. But then he shook his head and she saw it in his eyes. He had seen this before and it had been a lie. No matter how much she wanted it to be true, her mother was not alright. She was dead and…that thing down there was using her. She turned back. "No"

Henrietta quivered. "You were born September 2nd. I remember it well because it was, snowy. So strange, it would be snowing in September…"

"That thing in the cellar" Annie pointed, tears welling in her eyes. "Is not my mother!"

And that thing on the sofa, was no longer Ed. It leapt up, howling. He had been possessed while he slept, his mind and soul exposed. Ed's face had been twisted into a nightmarish expression, pale, wrinkled skin and long jagged teeth, two flaring holes where his nose should have been and of course, blank, milky white eyes. Every one leaped backwards away from him as he roared again. It jumped upwards, writhing in mid air, suspended by an unknown force. A rasping, ancient voice escaped from between its lips. "_We are the things that were and shall be again_!" it burst into cackling laughter. Ash looked wildly around the room. _Weapon, _his voice told him. _You need a weapon._ "_We stem from the book!_ _We want what is yours! Life! You will be dead by dawn!" _It burst into laughter again as a re-demonized Henrietta joined in. "_Dead by dawn! Dead by dawn! Dead by dawn! Dead by dawn! Dead by dawn! Dead by dawn!" _The evil Ed flew through the air, lunging at Bobby-Joe, and wrapping its cold fingers around her torso. She shrieked as it's teeth tore at her scalp, finally ripping free a large chunk of hair and gulping it down. "Let me out!" Henrietta cried from the cellar. "Sonuvabitch!" Jake yelled, grabbing the things shoulder as it limped towards the cellar door. It's head pivoted like an owl's, facing Jake directly behind him. The body swung around with it and grabbed Jake by the head, hurling him upwards with enough force to shatter a light bulb directly above him, after which he hit the floor and was still. Ash looked around, finally dashing away from Annie and out the back door. "Where are you going?" Annie called after him "Help us you fucking coward!" The Ed thing crouched down, attempting to tear apart the chain keeping Henrietta in the cellar. It looked upwards as a fierce yell filled the cabin. Ash charged back down the hallway, wielding a hatchet in his one good hand, howling some sort of battle cry at the top of his lungs. He swung, cleaving off a section of the things skull in a spray of deep green blood. He chopped at the flailing thing again and again, its screams meshing with Annie's. The yelling, howling, blood and gore all drove Ash into a frenzy, making him dismember the body at breakneck speed, swinging away and cutting through skin muscle and bone. The thick, green blood sprayed everywhere. He finally cleaved the things head to pieces as it garbled "_We live! We live still!" _

Annie crept towards the bloodied chunks of her ex-fiancé, little could still identify him as a human. Bobby-Joe and Jake joined her and Ash finally stood up, his grisly task finished. He still gripped the hatchet tightly as all four of them breathed heavily; finally realizing what kind of situation they were in.

Authors notes.

Well, that was an eventful chapter! I hurried to finish this one, since tomorrow I'll be in the UK! Yep, summer trip for me! See you all in about a month, or four weeks, whatever comes sooner.

Read, review, enjoy.


	24. Part 2: Chapter 24: ATMIMLKGKBCD

**Chapter 24**

**All The Men In My Life Keep Getting Killed By Candarian Demons**

Everyone had taken up stations around the cabin. Ash was sitting in the rocking chair, clutching the shotgun, Annie was going through her fathers notes, looking for something that might help them, Jake was keeping watch at the window and Bobby Joe was reluctantly clearing away what remained of Ed, throwing each piece in turn outside, wrapped in a blanket.

"So what can you tell me about these things?" Ash inquired in Annie's direction. Annie looked up "What?" Ash put down the shotgun. "These…things, you know, when they take you, these…"

"Deadites" Annie interjected. Ash raised an eyebrow. "Deadites?" Annie nodded. "Yeah, that's what ancient scripture calls those who have been possessed by spirits of The Necronomicon" Ash raised the other eyebrow "Nice name".

"That's odd" Ed finally said, a tremor of fear in his voice. "What?" Bobby Joe inquired, her grisly task finally done. Jake turned to her "That trail we came in on? It just ain't there no more" Bobby stared out the window, between the boards and sure enough, the tiny beaten path they had come in on was gone, a solid tree line was all that remained. "It's like the woods just…swallowed it up" He continued, positively terrified by now. The silence that followed this revelation seemed absolute. No one else spoke as even the wind grew quiet. Ash looked up at the wall. The clock had stopped ticking. It was as though time had frozen. He almost jumped when Annie spoke. "It's so quiet"

Ash actually did jump, along with everyone else, when a horrible rending noise filled the cabin. It sounded like someone dragging a metal bathtub across the ground. It was as though a tormented beast was howling at the top of it's lungs, and it was coming from outside. It was definitely coming from outside and it sounded like it wanted to come in. The four huddled in the middle of the room as a window in the far corner shattered. The timbers above them creaked and groaned as if they were bearing a colossal weight. The clock's hands began to spin faster and faster as the sound of stampeding horses filled the room. Roars came from different points in the room as Ash, Annie, Jake and Bobby-Joe all spun to try and see the source. A single piercing scream shook the cabin and then once more, there was silence.

Jake was the first to speak. "What the hell was that?"

"I don't know" Ash replied, as shaken as the rest of them. "Maybe something, from the other side. Something trying to force it's way into our world." No sooner had he spoke then a clap like thunder sounded from the far bedroom. It sounded again as a strange light seemed to flicker from within.

Ash stared at the door, mustering his courage. "Okay" he said, trying to take control of the situation. "We'll all go in together"

"Hell no!" Jake replied "You're the curious one" Ash grimaced in his direction, realizing he would once again be facing unknown horrors alone. He slowly edged towards the door, trying to make as little noise as possible, not knowing what lay on the other side. Suddenly Annie appeared at his right, holding a lantern. She smiled and nodded. Ash gave a small, reassuring smile back and carefully pushed the door wide with his stump as the flickering light stopped.

There was nothing in the room. It was just a simple bedroom, a cot, a wardrobe and a few pictures on the wall. Ash jumped as Jake and Bobby Joe leapt into the room behind him. "Well shit" Jake exhaled loudly "There ain't nuthin in here!" He was cut off rather rudely by a loud explosion.

The same screeching noise filled the room again as the room rumbled and a foggy light seemed to claw it's way into the air. Two hands formed from the mist and finally a ragged head. It howled in agony and began to breathe heavily, as if the figure had run miles. Annie had gone completely pale. She stepped towards the floating figure, her voice trembling. "Father?"

"Annie" the phantom replied "There is a…dark spirit…here that wants to destroy you" Every word sounded painful to utter, as if each syllable was a monumental effort. "Your salvation" He continued "Lies…there" One hand pointed to the glass case containing the pages of the Necronomicon. "The pages of the book…Recite the passages. Dispel the evil!" Knowby's spirit was growing faint, as if he were being pulled back from wherever he had come. "Save my soul!" Clawed hands reached from the darkness, wrapping around his head and hands, pulling him into the void "And your own Lives!" he howled, finally being wrenched back into the darkness and disappearing in a clap of thunder.

Silence once again filled the cabin. Bobby Joe broke it, whispering to Jake. "You're, you're holdin' my hand to tight" Jake looked at her with an odd expression. "Baby, I ain't holding your hand…" Bobby joe and everyone else slowly looked down at her hand to see who _was_ holding it.

It was Righty.

Needless to say, Bobby Joe screamed long and loud, hurling Ash's disembodied appendage across the room, where it struck Annie, who in turn dropped the lantern, which went out, bathing the room in darkness. Annie scrambled to pick it up while Jake quickly produced a match. As the lantern flared to life again, the light fell on only three people. Jake looked around the room, frightened "Hey" he whispered "Where's Bobby Joe?"

Bobby Joe had had enough and was making a run for it. Bobby Joe was outside.

She was running, howling through the trees as branches snatched at her hair and clothes. She plunged down an embankment and kept blundering through the underbrush. She wanted to be anywhere, anywhere but that damnable cabin. It was only till the lights of the wooden sanctuary faded from sight into the fog and she felt truly lost did Bobby Joe stop running and try to get her bearings. She realized that dashing blindly into the woods probably wasn't the best idea. Bobby figured she might want to head back, who knew what was waiting out here? She didn't have to wonder long as she felt something snaking up her leg. She looked down and gasped when she saw a ine slowly climbing her right thigh. She shrieked and traced the vine to a large tree. It seemed to shift in place, then a deep roar emitted from within it's wooden being. It was time to scream again, as more vines and branches wrapped around her, ripping at her clothes and hair. Roots burst from the ground, tearing away her jeans and holding her feet in place as more branches wrapped around her head and torso. Thin vines raked across her face as they forced their way into her mouth and down her throat. Suddenly all the branches grew taught, lifting Bobby Joe off of the ground and dragging her in a single direction across the forest floor. More vines pierced her flesh, tracing under her skin. She was being pulled at an impressive speed. Bobby, still screaming, looked up at where they were taking her, only to see the roots of a large tree part, revealing a large void where the vines emanated from. She howled one last time as she was dragged into the darkness under the tree and the roots threaded back under the soil, where she was trapped as all manner of unspeakable things were done to her by her arboreal captors.

Meanwhile back at the cabin…

Ash dropped the case containing the pages on the desk, shattering the glass. He didn't have time for subtlety. As he deftly picked the shards aside, Annie lifted the pages clear. Jake was by the window, staring out into the fog. "Hey" he moaned "Where the hell is she?" Ash glanced at him out of pity for a brief second before returning to his task. Jake returned to staring out the windows. The trees seemed to be…moving, growing closer to the cabin. He turned back "We gotta go out there and find her". Ash sighed "If she went out in those woods, you can forget about it. Then he suddenly shivered as a long chill ran down his spine. Something dark whispered in the black corner of his mind. Annie looked up from the pages, concern in her voice. "What's wrong?" Ash calmed as the sensation passed. "I felt like someone just…walked over my grave" He swallowed dryly then turned back towards the pages. "What's that picture?" he asked, pointing to an illustration on one of the pages. It depicted a man in blue, holding what looked like a thick, barbed sword in one hand and a stick with fire flowing out of the tip. He was surrounded by a throng of cheering people. "What is that?" Annie furrowed her brow. "It was prophesized that this man would come to earth in around…1300 AD. He's called The Chosen Hero From The Sky. It says that it was his destiny to destroy the evil" Ash grimaced. Something about that drawing seemed awfully familiar. "Well, whoever he was, he certainly didn't do a very good job. Did you find it?" Annie leafed through the pages, eventually pulling two out. "Here it is" she smiled pointing to the inscriptions. "Recitation of this first passage, will make this dark spirit manifest itself…in the flesh" Ash glanced at her incredulously. "Why the hell would we wanna do that?" Annie pointed to the second page. "Recitation of this second passage creates a kind of…gateway in time and space and the physical manifestation of this dark spirit can be forced into the rift, trapping it between dimensions. At least…that's the best translation I can manage from-" Annie was cut off abruptly by the cocking of a shotgun. She looked up at Ashley, who looked over at Jake, who was holding the double-barrel, a wild, enraged look in his eyes. "That's right" he grinned "I'm running this show now. We're gonna go out into them woods and find Bobby Joe, and once we find her we're gonna get the hell outta here!"

"No you idiot!" Ash yelled at him. "You'll kill us all. She's dead by now, don't you understand?" He held up the pages of the Necronomicon. "But with these pages, we might have a chance" Jake advanced on him "Bunch of mumbo-jumbo _bullshit_! These pages don't mean squat!" he snatched the pages from Ashleys hands and opened the trapdoor to the basement a crack, stuffing them inside. "Besides, now you ain't got no choice!" He pointed the gun at the two of them. "Now MOVE!"

Authors notes.

Yikes, Ash and co. certainly are in a predicament. Sorry about the long wait, I was going through a lot of personal crap. I'm back though and the next update will be here in a week or so.


End file.
